Karate ~ My Art by Motobu Choki: Watashi no Karate-jutsu (Legend of the Fist)

If you’re interested in martial arts or martial arts history, you need this book. The translation of “Watashi no karate-jutsu” in particular is extremely readable without sacrificing the quality of the information. Within the first five pages, I was reaching for a pencil and searching for a highlighter—and I don’t usually write in my books! This one has so much good information that was sparking connections for me that I wanted to mark where that information was. It definitely gives a different picture of Motobu Choki than my early teachers gave me: that of a technician, not a thug. This book should definitely be part of any martial artist’s library.

Motobu Choki remains an unheralded pioneer of modern karate, a hard-hitting, bare-knuckles brawler. Unfortunately, we only have two books to work from. There may be a half dozen people qualified to teach his style, and I believe nearly all are concentrated in Okinawa. Motobu had the misfortune of being a blunt martial arts reformer and heretic of his time, and a disparaged rival of Gichin Funakoshi - a master in his own right, but also a master of marketing gloss and the promulgator and promoter of now-global Shotokan. Patrick McCarthy captures a wide range of perspectives in this slim volume, while partly reads like the 1970s-era "Great Lives" series. A number of Motobu's contemporaries offer their accounts of the sensei, while rivals' perspectives also are included. McCarthy also offers varied views on Motobu's famed challenge fight, in which the middle-aged instructor knocked out a professional boxer. McCarthy doesn't draw firm conclusions due to the wild range of stories about this encounter. (It happened; the precise identity of the boxer remains in question.) McCarthy also captures the core sequence from Motobu's other book, "Karate Jutsu: Kumite." The whole of which is available from the Japanese National Diet Library (if you can read kanji, I can't) or from Eric Shahan's recent translation. McCarthy offers other quotes, insights, training insights, and additional photographs to support Motobu's book, which shows his kumite-heavy method of hockey-fight, clinch-range karate. It features hard, short punches, elbows, backfists and knees. The stance is more reminiscent of pugilism than those found in other karate styles. Grabs and deflections buy space for hard hitting. All kicks are low-line, and include a front snap kick, a side kick, and an oblique kick -- revived, of late, by UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, and found in other karate styles, Wing Chun kung fu, Jeet Kune Do, and in French savate ("chasse frontal bas"). The style features no roundhouse kicks. Motobu emphasizes close-range demolition and blunt-force trauma. The pictures are somewhat cleaned up and easy to comprehend. If you look closely, Motobu's stances are a weapon, used to unbalance opponents and to control their movement. Motobu emphasizes only one form: naihanchi. He knew others, but is reported to have practiced this form 500 times a day, along with strength training, makiwara pad work, use of specialized heavy bags (depicted within this book), and, of course, sparring. McCarthy underscores the deceptively simple nature of this style, and of its partner-based sequences done at varied speeds and intensities, in which fighting effectiveness is the immediate goal vs. learning two-dozen katas. The training methodology mirrors modern boxing, MMA or serious combatives training, which focuses on developing a limited number of techniques to perfection and then focuses on applying different qualities and variations to a solid core.

Way more than a translation of Motobu's second book on karate, it contains a wealth of historical information about this karate master. If your interesting in the history of karate you will find this book engrossing. The only down side (for me) is that I really dislike the compact presentation style, the flip side is that the book contain absolutely no padding each page is packed with quality! So don't judge the value for money based on the number of pages.

A very interesting book by an underrated master.

Very comprehensive piece of work

material background information

This book is about the dedication of Sensei Motobu Choki in the Art of Karate, I would recommend this book to Martial Artists from different disciplines and those who are interested to know about how Traditional Karate training method was back in those days. Also this book mentions how fighters from various martial arts showed interest in learning traditional Karate.

Excellent quality, a must have for every Martial Artist and karateka in particular.

Wer der englischen Sprache mächtig ist und Karate liebt sollte dieses Buch einmal gelesen haben

It's actually more of a compilation of everything motobu choki. Including the other book . Third print from 2017 even, some typos remain, surprisingly. Therefore, this item deserve 5 stars from me

If you’re interested in martial arts or martial arts history, you need this book. The translation of “Watashi no karate-jutsu” in particular is extremely readable without sacrificing the quality of the information. Within the first five pages, I was reaching for a pencil and searching for a highlighter—and I don’t usually write in my books! This one has so much good information that was sparking connections for me that I wanted to mark where that information was. It definitely gives a different picture of Motobu Choki than my early teachers gave me: that of a technician, not a thug. This book should definitely be part of any martial artist’s library.

Motobu Choki remains an unheralded pioneer of modern karate, a hard-hitting, bare-knuckles brawler. Unfortunately, we only have two books to work from. There may be a half dozen people qualified to teach his style, and I believe nearly all are concentrated in Okinawa. Motobu had the misfortune of being a blunt martial arts reformer and heretic of his time, and a disparaged rival of Gichin Funakoshi - a master in his own right, but also a master of marketing gloss and the promulgator and promoter of now-global Shotokan. Patrick McCarthy captures a wide range of perspectives in this slim volume, while partly reads like the 1970s-era "Great Lives" series. A number of Motobu's contemporaries offer their accounts of the sensei, while rivals' perspectives also are included. McCarthy also offers varied views on Motobu's famed challenge fight, in which the middle-aged instructor knocked out a professional boxer. McCarthy doesn't draw firm conclusions due to the wild range of stories about this encounter. (It happened; the precise identity of the boxer remains in question.) McCarthy also captures the core sequence from Motobu's other book, "Karate Jutsu: Kumite." The whole of which is available from the Japanese National Diet Library (if you can read kanji, I can't) or from Eric Shahan's recent translation. McCarthy offers other quotes, insights, training insights, and additional photographs to support Motobu's book, which shows his kumite-heavy method of hockey-fight, clinch-range karate. It features hard, short punches, elbows, backfists and knees. The stance is more reminiscent of pugilism than those found in other karate styles. Grabs and deflections buy space for hard hitting. All kicks are low-line, and include a front snap kick, a side kick, and an oblique kick -- revived, of late, by UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, and found in other karate styles, Wing Chun kung fu, Jeet Kune Do, and in French savate ("chasse frontal bas"). The style features no roundhouse kicks. Motobu emphasizes close-range demolition and blunt-force trauma. The pictures are somewhat cleaned up and easy to comprehend. If you look closely, Motobu's stances are a weapon, used to unbalance opponents and to control their movement. Motobu emphasizes only one form: naihanchi. He knew others, but is reported to have practiced this form 500 times a day, along with strength training, makiwara pad work, use of specialized heavy bags (depicted within this book), and, of course, sparring. McCarthy underscores the deceptively simple nature of this style, and of its partner-based sequences done at varied speeds and intensities, in which fighting effectiveness is the immediate goal vs. learning two-dozen katas. The training methodology mirrors modern boxing, MMA or serious combatives training, which focuses on developing a limited number of techniques to perfection and then focuses on applying different qualities and variations to a solid core.

Way more than a translation of Motobu's second book on karate, it contains a wealth of historical information about this karate master. If your interesting in the history of karate you will find this book engrossing. The only down side (for me) is that I really dislike the compact presentation style, the flip side is that the book contain absolutely no padding each page is packed with quality! So don't judge the value for money based on the number of pages.

A very interesting book by an underrated master.

Very comprehensive piece of work

material background information

This book is about the dedication of Sensei Motobu Choki in the Art of Karate, I would recommend this book to Martial Artists from different disciplines and those who are interested to know about how Traditional Karate training method was back in those days. Also this book mentions how fighters from various martial arts showed interest in learning traditional Karate.

Excellent quality, a must have for every Martial Artist and karateka in particular.

Wer der englischen Sprache mächtig ist und Karate liebt sollte dieses Buch einmal gelesen haben

It's actually more of a compilation of everything motobu choki. Including the other book . Third print from 2017 even, some typos remain, surprisingly. Therefore, this item deserve 5 stars from me