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Karate-do: My Way of Life

Gichin Funakoshi
Publisher: Kodansha America, Inc
Binding:Paperback Pages: 144
Publication Date: 1981-07
Edition: New edition
ISBN: 0870114638
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23 Customer Reviews, Average Rating See reviews.

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Synopsis

• This text presents the autobiography of the man who made karate an international martial art, in which he recalls his own teachers and of his efforts to define and spread knowledge about karate without compromising its spirit.

Customer Reviews

• brilliant book by Dylan -
• i started reading this book on here when you look inside the book but when it ended i thought wow i
  have to get this book and ordered it then. Its a great read and personally i think a great find on my behalf
• 0 people found this review helpful.

• A great read by Computer-Engineer-UK - Nottingham, UK
• A great history of Karate, told through an autobiographical narrative. An insight into the meaning behind the art, what it means to be a karate-ka, and a life story of the Sensei who brought karate from Okinawa to Japan and the wider world.
  
  A thought provoking, well written book for anyone interested in the martials arts.
  
• 0 people found this review helpful.

• Study & Learn From The Master of Karate by Andrew O. Brien - UK
• As a 5th dan practitioner of Shotokan Karate for nearly 40 years I have been aware of Gichin Funakoshi as it's founder the whole of my life. For many years I questioned the practical relevance of many of the techniques and kata I have been taught and in turn passed on to my own students. As a student I began to think that the aesthetic appearence of Karate seemed to be important to my seniors than its actual use as the self-defence system that it claimed to be. I was taught Karate kumite as a sport for scoring points with techniques of nearly no relevance to real confrontation and kata as almost a dance routine to look good to the eye and impress judges in an over riding and all important quest to gain a medal or trophy.
  On studying closely Karate-do: My Way of Life by Gichin Funakoshi we learn that Karate has changed so much since its introduction to Japan, that if our great projanitors were to see it practiced today it would be unrecognisable to them as Karate. This superb book gives us a unique snapshot at the old masters: Sokon Matsumura, Itosu and Azato. These truly hard man practised karate as a close quarter combat system designed specifically to protect their king. Kata was not a meaningless succession of movements for physical exercise or performance but rather each kata was a recording of a complete and utterly devastating fighting system. Moreover we discover that Gichin Funakoshi was adamantly against the stylisation of the art and was dismayed at his Karate being named Shotokan!
  Karate Do My Way of Life is a superb book written by a genius of the art.Okay, it's not Orange Prize book award writing but we're Karateka and every karateka should read it and enjoy it.... NO! STUDY IT AND LEARN from it for what it is. It gives us all the clues on how we should be teaching this life-changing art and its not how the majority of schools do it today.
  
  Overall a pleasant read but more importantly the key to how karate should be practiced is held within.
• 2 people found this review helpful.

• Karate Do My Way Of Life. by Greg Desmond - IRELAND
• An OK read, I was interestred in finding out about this man
  and his life.
  It was informative, but a little tedious in places.
  
• 0 people found this review helpful.

• Karate-Do: My Way Of life by Spider Monkey - UK
• `Karate-Do: My Way of Life' is an excellent book by Gichin Funakoshi where he recounts various events and experiences from his life. Rather than being a traditional autobiography it is more like a memoir where he shares his training, beliefs and theories on life and Karate. He shares assorted stories about his early training and the truth behind some of the myths that have sprung up around him, his fellow Karateka and his martial art in general. It also looks at the development of Karate from a secret martial art practised by him and a few others during the early years of the Meiji restoration to it's later status as an internationally renowned art. This book is very easy to read and you can see this master is both wise and humble and many martial artists can learn a great deal from him (whether Karate is their chosen art or not). This also sheds some light on life in Japan during the period of the authors life and makes for fascinating reading if you are interested in Japan in general. There is also a middle photo section showing Funakoshi during his later life. It pays to be aware that this book has no specifics about Karate techniques (you will need another book if that is what you are after) but it does look at Funakoshi's thoughts of life, training and the experiences of his life and overall it makes for fascinating and enlightening reading.
• 0 people found this review helpful.