Traditional Okinawan Karate - Suggested Readings

Proud to be a member of the United Ryukyu Kempo Alliance

-- Suggested Readings --

Bubishi: The Bible of Karate by Patrick McCarthy.

This book is the translation of an ancient text passed from teacher to disciple over hundreds of years. The exact age of the text and how it got into the hands of karate masters of Okinawa is unknown, but Mr. McCarthy offers some of his theories on the subject. This translation includes a brief history on karate in the Ryukyu Islands and contains Bubishi article translations with commentary by Mr. McCarthy. This book is a must read for anyone desiring to look deeper into the art of karate.

My Book List

The following list contains all of the martial arts related books I have in my personal library. I've scored each one on a scale of 1-5. 1=Don't waste your time to 5=You are insane if you do not buy this book. All opinions and comments are my own.

Ryukyu Kempo:History and Basics by J. D. Logue. Score: 5. Oyata's senior student. Has good historical information as well as basics. Covers basic exercises which is good.
Quest: The Ancient Way by Steve Stark. Score: 3. 7th dan under Oyata. Interesting to read someone's personal experiences with Oyata.
Ryu Te no Michi by Seiyu Oyata. Score: 3. I guess I expected "more" from this book. I like the personal history and what-not, but his info on the castles is not at all interesting. I was hoping more for stories of his involvement of the martial arts, but it's not really so much of an autobiography as it is general Okinawan history and personal philosophy.
Dillman series of pressure point fighting books: "Advanced Pressure Point Fighting of Ryukyu Kempo", "Advanced Pressure Point Grappling: Tuite", "Kyusho-jitsu". Score: 4. These are good books but tend to be a bit redundant and steeped in the mystical Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) view of the world. I would recommend saving your money and buying "Advanced Pressure Point Grappling: Tuite" only. It has similar information to the other two, but also includes some bunkai ideas for kata & techniques.
Karate-do Kyohan by Gichin Funakoshi. Score: 3. Shotokan kata are presented which helps compare/contrast what we study. Good history on karate. Very well edited. A little spendy as I recall. He mentions how the kanji of karate was changed and little bit behind what influenced the change.
Tote-jitsu by Gichin Funakoshi. Score: 4. Cheaper than Karate-do Kyohan and with just as good information in it.
Some Zen books: Zen and the Ways. Zen Philosophy and Zen Practice. Dance of Becoming. Score: 1. You don't need to know Zen in order to get tuite on someone. These books are worthless in my opinion. They did show me that I have ideological differences with the zen way of thinking. My scale should really include "0" because that's what I'd assign Dance of Becoming to. That book really was bad.
Weaponless Warriors by Richard Kim. Score: 3. I've revised the score on this after a recent re-reading. This book is full of stories about old Okinawan masters and their feats of prowess. Even though some of the things that happen don't appear to be all that accurate, it makes for an entertaining read.
Essence of Okinawan Karate-do by Shoshin Nagamine. Score: 5. Get the softcover version so you can write / highlight in it without feeling bad. Good for comparing/contrasting kata.
Classical Kata of Okinawan Karate by Patrick McCarthy. Score: 4. Has some good information in it. Shows his versions of doing kata similar to ours.
Manual of Structural Kinesiology by Thompson & Floyd. Score: 5. College level reference for understanding kinesiology.
Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee. Score: 3. Hard to read because he throws all kinds of different ideas at the reader.
Original Martial Arts Encyclopedia by Corcoran & Farkas. Score: 4. This one is hit and miss but I rate it above average because it is a good reference. Some of the kempo / karate information was inaccurate.
Encyclopedia of Dim-Mak (vols 1 & 2) by Erle Montaigue. Score: 4. Another book emphasizing points in terms of TCM. Has applications/setups for every single point. This would be a fun book to try with another person.
Chi books: Root of Chinese Chi Kung. Chi Kung. Chinese Qigong Massage. all by Yang Jwing-Ming. Score: 4. Books dealing with chi and TCM. If you are into this stuff, I'd recommend Root of Chinese Chi Kung as the other two are pretty much more of the same.
Comprehensive Applications of Shaolin Chin-na by Yang Jwing Ming. Score: 4. Like Montaigue's book, this would be a good one to try with a partner.
Ancient Okinawan Martial Arts: Koryu Uchinadi (vols 1. & 2). Score: 2. Kobudo kata presented. I didn't find them to be all that informative -- they are more or less kata manuals highlighting kata that aren't very similar to what we study. Your mileage may vary.
Zen & the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams. Score: 3. Even though it has Zen in the title, it's got some interesting anecdotal stories.
Zen Kobudo by Mark Bishop. Score: 3. Another kobudo book. I don't agree with some of the things Bishop wrote. Good from the perspective of making you think about things.
Okinawan Karate by Mark Bishop. Score: 4. A good book on different art forms and the instructors in Okinawa. Has a chapter about Motobu Udun Ti which is taught by Seikichi Uehara, Oyata's training partner.
Budoshoshinshu. Score: 3. This is actually interesting to read. It was written when Samurai were on the decline. Good in terms of anecdotal stories and "warrior thinking". Should be in the public domain so you don't even have to buy it.
Tales of Okinawa's Great Masters by Shoshin Nagamine. Score: 2. I was hoping for more stories out of this book, you know, like TALES. It's got a lot of Nagamine talking ABOUT the masters, but not very many real stories of the masters.
Bubishi: Bible of Karate by Patrick McCarthy. Score: 5. Excellent book containing historical information.
Okinawan Karate: Secret art of Tuite by Javier Martinez. Score: 4. Presents some excellent concepts for techniques. A few of the presented techniques I have tried aren't very good though.

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