Customer Reviews

The Complete Seven Katas of Judo

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This book contains descriptions on nage-, katame-, gonosen-, kime-, itsutsu-, ju- and koshiki no kata. The descriptions are not the standard Kodokan-versions. This book was written in the 1950s when the katas were not standardised. Each technique is described in words and with drawings. The drawings are not always clear and they can be a little difficult to understand if you don't know the movements allready.

I cannot recommend this book as a basic learning book for kata, but I think that it is a valuable reading for the judoka interested in kata. You can feel the links to the older and more original judo.

It is also valuable to read the introductions by the author and the translator. They will deepen your knowledge about kata.

Finally: I think that this book is valuable if it is used togehter with another book on kata (for example Judo formal techniques or Kodokan Judo), good kata videos or a personal instructor.

This book attempts to clarify the katas.
More focus, illustration, and pictures would have been better. Maybe better to stick with one kata and perfect it.
There are discrepancies between Kodokan and Kawaishi san.

As a student and teacher of Judo I am happy to have read the highly influential Kawaishi's kata book, however it is less informative and less specific than Kano's KODOKAN JUDO. If you are a student of Judo Kata then "Ju-No-Kata: A Kodokan Textbook" and "Judo Formal Techniques: A Complete Guide to Kodokan Randori No Kata" are essential kata texts. There are some insightful passages on kata and judo in general in Kawaishi's book, but overall it is not as detailed or clearly represented as one might expect a book discussing kata should be.