Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23629 in Books
• Published on: 1984-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 210 pages

Customer Reviews

Wado-Ryu Katas made simple
This book is without doubt one of the best I have seen for illustrating katas.

It covers the five Pinan Katas, along with Kushanku, Naifanchi, Seishan, and Chinto, and explains in detail the required stances, moves and some applications.

Several books illustrate Wado-Ryu katas but tend to vary at certain points in each kata. As a student of Wado-Ryu in the UK, I have found no differences in the moves shown to those taught to me.

My only critism of this book is very slight: it makes no reference to which moves should be performed with Kiai.

The photographs are in black and white but very detailed and clear, with decriptive text under each.

All in all, I would recommend this book not so much as a tutorial in itself (although it could no doubt be used in such a manner) but more as a reference guide to those already studying Wado-Ryu Karate.

A good coverage of kata sequences, but no Bassai
I found the book useful for learning and remembering the sequences of moves, but little more. As the book only contains pictures, its real benefit to the student is in learning the sequences of movements. For katas beyond the Pinan ones, it is easy to forget them if you don't practice them for a while, so this book could prove valuable. I did find it odd that there was no coverage of Bassai, which is a great competition kata. But there was no real coverage of what makes a technique a good one, which, in turn, makes a kata either good, average or bad. Also the book did not mention the spirit and focus required in a good kata. It talked about energy curves and the physics behind punching, but not about the fundamental fighting spirit of kata.

Essential Wado Ryu reference
This is an excellent book, as is Mr. Ohgami's Introduction to Karate which together have been called by some the Bibles of Wado Karate.
This book covers nine Kata, not all the Katas practiced in wado
today, but the CORE Katas. The founder of WadoRyu, Hironori Otsuka taught that these nine Katas were the official katas of wado Ryu, although another 7 katas have also been traditionally practiced in Wado but not with the same emphasis, hence some popular Katas for Brown/Black belt levels like Bassai, Jion, Wanshu are not covered. The official 9 are pinans 1-5, Kushanku,
Naifanchi, Seishan, and Chinto. They are covered completely by
photographs and from a perfectionists view. Other than Mr. Ohgami's 2 books, the best wado references are Tatsuo Suzuki's out of print Karate-Do, and the limited edition of Hironori Otsuka's 'Wado Ryu Karate' which also deals with these 9 kata.