Okinawan Kempo: Choki Motobu Paperback – April 24, 2013

Okinawan Kempo. A good read. Historically correct. It is not actually by Choki Motobu but does contain material written by him . For greater detail, check out "Motobu Choki.Karate,my art". Translated by Patrick McCarthy. This is perhaps a more complete document

I appreciate the translation work done with this book, but whoever did the editing ruined the original photographs, replacing them with smaller images that appear to be pencil tracings of the originals. It's pretty ugly. If you buy this book, I recommend also downloading the original Japanese manuscript from the University of Hawaii's website, so you can see the photographs as they were meant to be seen.

I started to count the number of pages that were blank or only had one word on a page, but there were too many.I looks like a basic instruction booklet that the publisher made into a book.Out of about 100 pages, probably half have more than one word/number on them.The only reason that I didn't give it One star is out of respect to the "author". Although I doubt that it was his intention to make a book out of it.

I enjoyed the book .Theres not much info in the book. I think I would get another book instead of this one. Funakoshi said do the katas Motobu said fight I would go with Funakoshi. Im sure Motobu was great martial artist. but thers not many of us who can train in the mma . If you dont know much about karate history this would be a fairly good book to have. I was expecting much more from the book.

This is a short book but one that give you an insight of Motobu and how he trained. You will see many counters and few first strikes. He shows you how Okinawan Karate looked like. I would have liked to see more of his thoughts but it is a translation

A good intro to master Motobu and his system of Tomari Te. Extremely good biographical information for the avid student.

Very recommended book for Karate lovers and the ones who seek for Karate history, culture and heritage!

The book arrived at the anticipated time and was in the condition stated. I was very happy with this purchase. My husband loved his Christmas present.

Should of read the reviews first. Wasted my money on this kindle edition. Pictures OK, leaves you to draw your own conclusions on what they depict. But no words, no explanations, no philosophy, no background info, no editorial. Nothing. Would like my money back.

I cannot actually review the book because amazon have not downloaded it onto my kindle. I selected and paid for this book but I have received a japanese documents with very few pages.I am pursuing amazon in this regard.

This is a good source document for those interested in studying the history and development of Karate. The Book has a particular focus on Kumite. There are many black and white photos taken in the 1920's (presumably taken on glass plates, where those being photographed had to pose and remain still for quite some time for the photo's to be taken). It demonstrates a type of Kumite that we in our association refer to as 'anyblock'. What may be of interest to those charting the differences between 'sport karate' and 'realistic bunkai', is the much closer distancing between training partners, also the use of the 'hikite' (withdrawing hand). The book is also very descriptive - much of it consists of the original authors writing. An interesting section on the history of Karate, suggesting that some kata are predominantly Chinese, whilst others from Okinawa or Japan. However, I did think that this was overpriced - hence three stars, although it may invaluable to someone carrying out research.

I am at a loss to understand why drawings, which are far inferior to the original photographs, have been used in this book, despite the spurious excuse given on page 85:'Please remember that photography was not highly sophisticated in 1926 and that the photo quality was not at its best'.(Some very sophisticated action photographs exist from battles in World War 1).I have reproductions of these photographs which are not only far superior to the artwork included in this book, but which also accurately depict the hand positions -unlike the drawings.An example of this mis-direction can be found on page 60, where the artist has either misinterpreted or wrongly recreated the hand positions, perhaps due to inferior photocopies.The third verso page, following the title page, shows calligraphy taken from Seiyu Oyata's 1977 translation. Unfortunately, it has been lifted and reversed!!!!The translation is also remarkably close to that of Oyata's book.Any serious student would be better served obtaining a copy of Oyata's translation, or seeking out the original at http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/922034