#BR5060A-BD
DIGITAL E-BOOK
By Bruce Clayton, PhD
Shotokan's Secret Karate was invented by the world's only unarmed bodyguards to protect the world's only unarmed king... against Americans! In 1853, before the American Civil War, the king of Okinawa was caught in a brink-of-war confrontation between the shogun's implacable samurai and an invading force of U.S. Marines. Trapped between katana and bayonets, the king's unarmed guards faced impossible odds and narrowly avoided a costly bloodbath. Karate masters Sokon Matsumura and Yasutsune Itosu spent decades reliving that day in their imaginations. They designed a new martial art for the royal bodyguards, making bare hands the equal of razor sharp steel. This was the first emergence of the hard style karate that became Shotokan, a full generation before Master Gichen Funakoshi took his first karate lesson. The bodyguards taught Funakoshi their kata, but they didn't teach him their applications. They taught him their high impact techniques, but they didn't explain why they needed them. They handed him the most ruthless combat art ever seen, but didn't explain what it was for. Shotokan's Secret explains, once and for all, where karate really came from and what its purpose truly is. It lays bare karate's most puzzling mysteries, allowing us to finally see the people we are fighting, know how they are armed and learn why Shotokan is obsessed with multiple enemy scenarios. Finally, Shotokan's Secret explores karate's hidden flaws and how we can repair them to create a self-defense art for the 21st century. Shotokan's Secret brings karate to life through painstaking historical research, extensive footnoting, archival lithographs and artwork, rare sketches and practical guidelines for developing modern day Shotokan empowered warriors. Shotokan's Secret is the first book to dissect the lore and make significant new statements about the art. An original Ohara/Black Belt book, republished by rights owner, Century Martial Arts.