 | Kendo: The Definitive Guide by Hiroshi Ozawa
Buy new: £13.34 / Used from: £10.00 Great for beginners - shows how to tie bogu on, repair shinai and all basic techniques - start here!
|
 | Looking at a Far Mountain: A Study of Kendo Kata (Tuttle Martial Arts) by Paul Budden
Buy new: £10.47 / Used from: £14.40 Essential really.
|
 | The Heart of Kendo: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of the Art of the Sword by Darrell Craig
Buy new: £19.40 / Used from: £3.39 Interesting account from a kendoka who learned old (pre WWII) style kendo
|
 | Complete Kendo (Tuttle Martial Arts) by John J. Donohue
Buy new: £16.14 / Used from: £4.74 Old and hard to get, non essential, but interesting if you want a library dating back to when kendo was a secret in the west
|
 | Kendo (Martial Arts) by Jeff Broderick
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £4.00 Very good beginners book - highly recommended
|
 | Legacies of the Sword by Karl F. Friday
Buy used from: £169.99 Wow this was hard work. Suspect you need to be quite advanced to follow all this.
|
 | Angry White Pyjamas: An Oxford Poet Trains with the Tokyo Riot Police by Robert Twigger
Buy new: £4.96 / Used from: £0.01 Must Read this book! Great window on training in Japan.
|
 | Traditions: Essays on the Japanese Martial Arts and Ways (Tuttle Martial Arts) by Dave Lowry
Buy new: £8.17 / Used from: £4.67 Collection of essays on martial arts. Only slightly relevant to Kendo but worth every penny.
|
 | Kodo: Ancient Ways. Lessons in the Spiritual Life of the Warrior/Martial Artist. by Kensho Furuya
Buy new: £9.65 / Used from: £2.00 Similar to Lowery's traditions but written by a zen monk.
|
 | The Sword of No-sword: Life of the Master Warrior Tesshu by John Stevens
Buy used from: £8.72 This is a great read, about a fairly modern sword saint.
|
 | The Book of Five Rings (Shambhala Classics) by Musashi Miyamoto
Buy new: £10.75 / Used from: £0.01 Well I suppose everyone needs a copy of this, even if just to talk about in the pub
|
 | The Ronin: A Novel Based on a Zen Myth by William Dale Jennings
Buy new: £12.50 / Used from: £2.67 A zen novel, surprisingly easy to make sense of, relevant to Kendo training
|
 | The Shambhala Guide to Kendo by Minoru Kiyota
Buy new: £17.99 / Used from: £1.37 Worth having for completeness sake, slightly deeper explanation of philosophical side. If you buy only one book, make sure it isn't this one.
|
 | This is Kendo: The Art of Japanese Fencing by Junzo Sasamori
Buy new: £8.72 / Used from: £5.98 Not your first book, but worth getting early in your kendo career. Relevant to beginers and intermediate alike.
|
 | Rediscovering Budo: From a Swordsman's Perspective by Roald Knutsen
Buy new: £33.25 / Used from: £18.55 Non essential, written by a 6th Dan very knowledgeable about the relationship of kendo to zen buddhism and shinto. Interesting but deep.
|
 | Samurai Zen: The Warrior Koans by Trevor Leggett
Buy new: £14.24 / Used from: £4.10 Related brain candy
|
 | This is Kendo
I wouldn't bother.
|
Listmania!
