Customer Reviews

Jujutsu: Legacy of the Samurai

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having a love for martial arts, I have studied Chinese forms of martial arts for six years. In that time I have read copious amounts of martial arts literature to further my studies. Many of them were unrealistic in their claims to make a person invincible in five easy steps or trapped in the theoretical. Mark Barlow provides a wonderful view of Jujitsu as an art form that will take time to learn and master, gives realistic views of Jujitsu as a sport or a self defense system, and shares with the reader history, basic techniques, and what to look for in different teachers.

This book will be an excellent addition to anyone who is interested in expanding their Martial Atrs literature.

I liked the combination of history, philosophy and techniques. He got a little preachy near the end but I think it's a good book.

I've been playing Judo for a few years now and this book really explained the different mindsets between do & jutsu. My only complaint & the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was a couple of the photos didn't have enough detail to clearly see the technique. The text explained everything pretty good but I still prefer illustrations. A minor complaint but I never give anything 5 stars anyway.

If you are really looking into JuJutsu, don't buy this book. This book has black and whites of the "take my wrist" and 1-2-3 type moves. The author doesn't offer anything new to the topic of JJ that I haven't already gotten off of Wikipedia. This book is a dead zero if you want to know anything other than what kind of JJ this guy teaches. One more thing...the font is HUGE and double spaced in order to take up room enough to make pages. LOL.

When I buy martial arts books I'm expecting b.s. about how their stuff is better than other stuff and here's how you can be just as godlike. Barlow surprised me by not saying jujitsu is better, just different and how you have to bust your hump to be good at any of them.

I liked the history and philosophy and got a kick out of what to expect in the dojo.