Book Larnin'

I think there is something inside us that wants to capture reality and hold it in our hands.

In the mid 60’s I became aware of Bruce Tegner’s book on karate, and then karate publications such as Black Belt also developed an awareness of karate’s potential. I even had a book on tai chi that I was trying to figure out before I began my Isshinryu studies in Salisbury, Md.

But there has been very, very little that was ever written that really made any difference in my training. The transmission of karate really only takes place on the floor.

At a few early tournaments I found Steve Armstrong’s books on Isshinryu kata, which never really added a dimension to my own studies, but buying them I became hooked. For decades if I found a magazine or a book I bought them trying to see what I could learn. I’ve probably acquired 600 books and thousands of karate magazines over the years.
A few years ago I gave away and trashed all of the magazines, only keeping a handful of articles (on Isshinryu or on various kata from 1970’s publications). They no longer added depth to my art. To this day it takes an exceptional issue to pike my interest, maybe two times a year.

The books are a more complex matter. I’ve given a solid collection to the Boys and Girls Club if any young people are interested in reading about the arts. I have hundreds in storage in the basement till I figure out where they belong (I can’t throw them away even though they’re of little interest to me anymore).

Then I have a core collection of a few hundred volumes that surround me. Available for research into almost anything. Not that many of the old works are originals, rather reproductions and some of which are photocopies from editions I’ve borrowed to do my own French translation efforts.

The early collection:
Funakoshi Ginchin: The recent translation of ‘Karate Jutsu’
The translation of the Karate-Do Koyan
Motobu's books: Japanese reproduction and Patrick McCarthy translation
Mabuni Kenwa, translations of his 1933-1934 publications
Kobou Jizai Goshin-jutsu Karete Kempo
Seipai no Kenkyu (including the first publication of Bubishi drawings)
Mutsu Mizho’s 1933 ‘Karate Kempo’ reproduction
Nakasone Genwa’s 1938 ‘Karate Do Taiken’ reproduction

The Bubishi Collection: A selection of works published in English, Japanese and French.
The Isshinryu Collection
The Shotokan Collection:
Funakoshi’s ‘Karate-Do Kyumon’
Nakayama’s ‘Dynamic Karate’, and the compete ‘Best Karate series’
Okazaki’s ‘The Textbook of Modern Karate’
Enoda’s ‘Advanced Kata’ series
Harry Cook ‘Shotokan a Precise History’
The Mas Oyama collection including ‘Advanced Karate’
The Nagamine Shoshin Collection
The Essence of Okinawan Karate
Tales of Okinawa’s Great Masters
The Goju Ryu Collection
Hiagonna’s 4 books
The Shorinji Kempo collection
The Aikido collection
Ueshiba K. – Aikido
Usheiba M.– The Essence of Aikido
Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere
Shioda – Total Aikido
And many more
The Tai Chi collection (too many to mention)
The Ying Jow Pai collection (Eagle Claw)
The Chinese collection
BaGua chaun
Chin Na collection
Hung Gar
WuShu collection
The Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming collection (I believe almost everything)
The Charles Joseph Swift translation collection
The Patrick McCarthy translation collection
The Mario McKenna translation collection
The Judo collection
Gleason – Judo Inside Out
Draeger – Judo Formal Techniques
The reference collection
Sells Unante and Unante II
Bishop Okinawna Karate and Kobudo texts
The Korean collection
Hapikido
Hawrangdo
The Dim Mak collection
The Kobudo collection
Sutrisno Tristan’s ‘Becoming a Complete Martial Artist’
-- of course that’s just part of it --

The books help give a perspective of historical context, but as the years pass and new information comes to light it’s difficult to accept any of them as accurate.

More accurately they are reflections of what the author felt was accurate. That is useful but it’s difficult to any work as the truth.

The core problem of contemporary martial literature is most authors copy from earlier works, without vetting if that information is correct.

A simple answer is the idea that a choke to the neck cuts off the blood to the brain, causing unconsciousness to follow in a short period of time. It’s repeated continually, but if you talk to a surgeon you discover that the choke to the neck is actually stimulating the carotid sinus, and the sinuses are in the body to regulate the bodies blood pressure. The choke across the carotid sinus is interpreted as a spike to blood pressure and in turn the heart stops beating to reduce the pressure, and this is what causes the black out. Surgeon’s use this to stop the heart during some surgical procedures. If the Carotid sinus is pinched off the black out does not occur, for the secondary blood vessels carry enough blood flow to keep the brain active. Often during neck surgery the carotid artery is shut down but the patient is kept aware and talking. [BTW do not take my description as an accurate medical one, I’m totally incompetent to discuss medical matters, my surgeon as made that very clear to me.]

This information is available, but if it’s written in a book it must be accurate so it keeps being repeated.

Likewise stories about history, which have not been vetted by historians are taken as historical truth, especially about an art that was based on more physical transmission instead of verbal transmission, and at that was mostly non-literate, unwritten.

The truth of the dojo floor is things are continually evolving in training a student. As time passes and their efforts increase their abilities, the training must evolve to take advantage of that training. A book might show stance and moves of a kata, but it cannot ever capture what really is involved to learn that kata the first year, the 10th years, the 20th year and so forth. The reality of training is complex and challenging.

The books give a wider perspective how someone is trying to explain aspects of their art to someone else.
The earliest books were not written for Okinawan’s but for the Japanese, and offer a glimpse at what karate was in the 1920’s and 1930’s. That’s not enough but it’s all there is for the most part.

The collection is very personal and valuable to me. I get frantic when I can’t find a volume for weeks and happy when it shows up.

Of course my most valuable collection is the one I create, the decades of notes on studies with my friends and my own research on how things work. I probably have over 25 feet of those notes at this time.
I enjoy the dojo floor best, but in the evening there is something about cracking open a book and reading and thinking. Especiall