Book review by Sensei Dan Young.
This book series was written by 9th dan Shito-Ryu instructor Fumio Demura Sensei, who sadly passed away last year. Demura Sensei was the stunt double for Pat Morita in ‘The Karate Kid’ film series and has been a consultant in other films such as the original ‘Conan the Barbarian.’ Demura Sensei was trained by Shinken Taira Sensei in kobujutsu, who was a student of Funakoshi Sensei, and in karate by Sakagami Sensei.
The series focus on various Japanese weapons such as:
· Bo
· Tonfa
· Nunchaku
· Kama
· Sai
I have the first 3 books in the list above, the first one was a gift from Sensei Roy Currie and the second and third were prompted having trained in those weapons with Sensei Simon Oliver.
The books start with the different sorts of the weapon types, history of the weapon before moving onto the physical skills. Each book has a section devoted to kihon - looking at individual techniques (with English and Japanese translations), comparing them to empty hand techniques (in the tonfa and nunchaku books), which is invaluable to see the link between what we do in our regular training. It also includes care of the weapon, stances and warm ups.
Then, there is a section based on combinations before moving onto kumite. In the kumite it looks at dealing with unarmed attackers or being an unarmed victim to a weapons attack and various weapons such as bo and knife attacks.
The bo book looks at one of the variations of Suishi No Kon which is an interesting comparison with our own version of the kata.
For anyone who has a keen interest in their weapons training/kobujitsu then these books will further your knowledge a great deal. Be sure to read the numbers on the pictures as they can go across the pages or down the pages!
The explanations are useful in understanding what is going on in the pictures. The books are not massive reads at around 150 pages and a great tool for reference and furthering your understanding of traditional karate weapons.
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