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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good attempt, not up to DVD quality, February 6, 2004
This review is from: Japanese Swordsmanship The Art of the Samurai (DVD)
As every school of Japanese sword training has different techniques, I cannot criticize the abilities of any of the demonstrators. They do seem to know their styles. The presentation, multiple angles and explanations are done well. I was surprised that the gentleman demonstrating cutting did not have his saya tied into his hakama, but he did a good job explaining the basics he wanted to cover. The information presented gives a brief overview of the history of the samurai. There are many other excellent sources of information on Japanese martial arts, including: Donn Draeger's Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts (available at a nice price through amazon.com); some of Diane Skoss' books (also available here); koryubudo.com and shutokukan.org The key to any martial arts training is to train with a legitimate sensei. The only way to truly learn the way of the sword is to continually practice. Watching this video is a good introduction, but without someone to watch your form, you will not know if you are developing bad habits or doing something wrong. I would have given this DVD 4 stars if it had included a chapter search and if the video quality was better. The material covered was worth the price.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For those who really want to learn..... this is the one, June 3, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Japanese Swordsmanship The Art of the Samurai (DVD)
This is an impressive DVD...if you are really interested in learning sword technique and kata this is the dvd for you. It may not have the "hollywood" make believe flambouancy that we see on the motion picture film screen, but it does have real technique for those who have the patience to learn. Any martial artist knows it takes patience, practice and repetition to become skillful. If you are looking for purely entertainment go to the movies if you want to learn swordsmanship buy this dvd.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mistaken Identity, March 2, 2004
This review is from: Japanese Swordsmanship The Art of the Samurai (DVD)
As mentioned in the other reviews, the publishers of this volume simply (and I do mean simply) copied a videotape of medium to low resolution and authored a DVD with a single menu item - PLAY. The image quality is so bad in parts that it is difficult to discerne what's going on in the video, and the explanations about what the instructor is doing are sparse, if any are given at all. Perhaps when the original video was mastered there wasn't much out there in the way of Japanese sword instruction. If this is still the case, then there is a good market for some quality instruction and creative authoring.
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