- Paperback: 312 pages
- Publisher: Black Belt Communications (1 April 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0897501446
- ISBN-13: 978-0897501446
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
360,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Other Sports > Lacrosse
- #26 in Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Fitness & Exercise > Martial Arts > Karate
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Product Description
Product Description
This is the first book to dissect the lore and reveal the origins and purpose of the art of shotokan. It describes how karate was invented by the world's only unarmed bodyguards to protect the world's only unarmed king against Americans. In 1853, before the American Civil War, the king of Okinawa was caught in a confrontation between the shogun's implacable samurai and an invading force of U.S. Marines. Trapped between katana and bayonets, the king's unarmed guards faced impossible odds and narrowly avoided a costly bloodbath.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gives real depth of understanding,
By
This review is from: Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truths Behind Karate's Fighting Origins: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins (Paperback)
Being only an interested beginner, in karate terms, I have been trying to find books to 'flesh out' the subject - this book is one of the best I have found.
The book is written from a very 'western' perspective - i.e. using reason, logic and especially skepticism - to counteract some of the misleading and inaccurate traditions that have built up over the years. The author fundamentally believes that everything within karate was designed to be practical and efficient. This assumption then leads to what many will believe is a speculative account of the history and invention of modern karate. I feel that the historical account is very useful in understanding the psychology of many early practitioners of the art. If you keep in mind the contraversial nature of some of the material, then you can enjoy the well researched prose and numerous insightful observations made - particularly concerning cultural differences between east and west. If you want to gain an understanding of how traditional karate practitioners view their art then this book would be a good starting point. Hopefully, it will encourage more karate students to question the information handed down as gospel by their senseis - particularly as much of it appears to be self-serving.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Be serious to read this !!!,
By Phil Hannah (Halesowen, West Midlands United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truths Behind Karate's Fighting Origins: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins (Paperback)
Cracking book but not for the dabbler!! Bruce Claydon has carried out extensive research to write this book. He has clearly spend a very long time (and probably a great deal of money) to try to get inside karate and it's roots.His writing style allows us to read the book almost as a novel and yet at the same time the reader is aware that this genuinely may be the secrets...not the myth...of the origins of shotokan karate. Highly recommended to anyone who believes that karate is more than just moving up and down the dojo. Absolute must for your library...but keep an open mind as you read it..Bruce challenges almost everything!!!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating,
By Oberon Stark (London, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truths Behind Karate's Fighting Origins: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins (Paperback)
The historical content of this book is not only carefully researched but it paints a fascinating picture of the history of Shotokan karate. Now, you have to be careful with this book as with any karate history book. Clayton provides a mixed bag of historical fact, hearsay and pure speculation. Determining what is fact and what is quite likely fiction takes a bit of thinking. Nonetheless the story the Clayton tells is more believable than any competing theories and it does all make god sense. And anyway, the idea that the first karate masters were Royal bodyguards is just too cool to ignore.
This book also includes a section on karate self-defence applications. These are interesting, inventive and apply to some situations that people don't often consider. For example, Clayton suggests that Tekki Shodan can be used to incapacitate a bad-guy then use him as a human shield. How cool is that? As with many karate applications they often seem to be hard to get to actually work in practice, especially with an uncooperative opponent (and reaslistically, is there anything but an uncooperative opponent?) Overall worth reading, even if just for the Royal bodyguards and the human shield stuff.
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