Karate Jutsu: The Original Teachings of Gichin Funakoshi - Hardcover

Funakoshi, Gichin

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9784770026811: Karate Jutsu: The Original Teachings of Gichin Funakoshi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 4770026811 ISBN 13: 9784770026811

Publisher: Kodansha USA Inc, 2001

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Gichin Funakoshi is considered the father of modern karate. In the 1920s, he wrote the first of several classic karate texts, culminating his career with the publication of Karate-do Kyohan, which remains among the most important and influential works on karate today.

The Kyohan, however, evolved from Karate Jutsu, a much earlier work. In the formative writings of the Jutsu, Funakoshi set out the philosophy and forms that he would practice and refine for the rest of his life.

As the Kyohan's earliest version, Karate Jutsu has attained legendary status. Legions of enthusiastic martial arts practitioners have sought out the original Japanese version, and pirated English-language editions have circulated for years.

This is the first official English publication of Karate Jutsu. Translator John Teramoto has gone to great lengths to accurately convey the essence of Funakoshi's original manuscript, and has contributed an informative introduction and revealing footnotes that clearly note where the forms in Jutsu vary from those of the Kyohan. Karate Jutsu also includes rare historical photographs of Funakoshi himself demonstrating the kata, his early writings in their original form, and a foreword by Tsutomu Ohshima, the founder and chief instructor of the Shotokan Karate of America.

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About the Author:

Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957) is known throughout the world as one of karate's great masters. Born in Okinawa, he began training in karate as a child. Also educated in the Confucian classics, he became a schoolteacher early in life. In 1922, he demonstrated the then-secret Okinawan art on the Japanese mainland, which led to karate's introduction to the rest of Japan and subsequently the rest of the world. Funakoshi devoted the remainder of his life to this traditional sport and wrote several classics on the subject, including Karate-do Kyohan and an autobiography entitled Karate-do: My Way of Life.

John Teramoto, the translator, was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1950. After beginning karate training in 1963, he reached the rank of godan in 1990. Since 1998, he has served as the president of the Black Belt Council of the Shotokan Karate of America. Teramoto received a Ph. D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in Japanese Art History in 1994 and is currently an Associate Curator of Asian Art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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