Customer Reviews

Kenjutsu: The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship

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

 

 

Being a Kenjutsu and Iaijutsu practitioner for fifteen years I have seen many books upon the subject, in that time I have never seen one quite as bad as this book. Mr Daniel claims to be an expert upon the subject, even experts have off days, a slight head cold can badly effect ones performance, however I fear that was not the case with this offering. Mr Daniels Tai-sabaki (Natural body movement) in no small way resembles a pregnant antelope who has reccently undergone some kind of surgery to lengthen their already overly extended and unwieldy legs. After as long as I have been flashing a blade I do understand that a stance is a transition between movements and not a true position itself, however this is no excuse for mr Daniels inconsistancy and inaccuracy in his stances. I beg him to please review his dai-jodan because if he does not he will one day loose his head. Also, his waki stance, or should I say stances because no two are quite alike..., are regretable.

However the biggest jokes in this book are his nito (two sword techniques) they lack grace, skill and imagination. ...I know! we'll take all our bujinkan taijutsu stances and stick a couple of swords in our hands and mess around a bit. The only reason I gave this book one star was the fact that the Muto dori ( no sword against sword) techniques at the back of the book are so laughable, in their suicidability....

This book is intended as a (very) basic reference to the art of kenjutsu, and that is exactly what it is. A extremely basic text with somewhat difficult to follow grainy photos. The author shows some basic attacks and parries, but no katas, and no excerises one can use to improve on their own. It does the job it is intended to okay, but, lord, it could have been so much better with just a fraction more effort.

well well...the third and final book in unfortunatly we unciver the problems with all the books he did for unique...the crappy pictures as with all there books not just mr daniels..hatsumi did one..hjust as bad pictures...unique was a very terrible company...full of text errors and dropped info...and of course i truly believe that mr daniels utimately suffered in his career from these boos..i have dvd and have trained with some of his student he was a spectacular ninja and should come back into the spotlight as he was huge influence....now onto this book...this book is great for what it is...a small taste of mr daniels genuis...thats what we are looking at that some of you should keep this in mind...i find no others with the balls to ass in the takagi or koto ryus swords stuff in a book except for kacem who is just now putting out a book in the usa...this informaton back then was hard to come by and still to this day is ..i dont know what most of these people are tripping on...so there was some off shots blame unique look at there other books...they picked the shots the touch and they proof read the books...i do not know mr daniels personally but i have followed his odd ninja style from the 80s and til he disappeared in the 90s and he was a great one...old ninjas never die...they just disappear....he did more with the sword than anyone back in the day period. he didnt always use the blade and niether did the ninja...thanx...go find the truth before you jump...

I bought this book some time ago in my early days of studying Kenjutsu and found the pictures and descrioption to be less than accurate. The quality of photography is poor and is not a good book, IMO,. for the student wishing to develop his Kenjutsu skills at an early stage. As one becomes more proficient this book can offer some ideas but also highlights some poor presentation. Would not recommend it as a self study guide!

Another introductory text that really says nothing. Buyer beware..

This is an interesting book on Kenjutsu, which means "Sword Art." Though the author presents a good basic history on the development of Japanese sword arts, I admit to being mystified at the uniforms shown in the photographs. This is suppose to be a book on "traditional Kenjutsu." From my own experience, having practiced Kenjutsu for several years, I was amazed that no one is shown wearing a Hakama in the photographs. There is also nothing about the author's background. Finally, the stances (Kamaes) did not appear to be done exactly the way I learned them when I studied Kenjutsu and Kendo. To be fair, I realize there are many different sword systems, and may be in the author's Kenjutsu style they perform the techniques with some variation. This book covers the basic sword grip, stances, simple attacks, parrying techniques, and other basic sword techniques. In conclusion, this book may be of interest to someone who is seeking a very basic text on Kenjutsu. However, there are numerous other excellent books on the market today that deal with this topic in a more recognized traditional Kenjutsu manner.

Rating: 2 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Samurai Aerobics: The Kenjutsu/Kendo Workout).

Another introductory text that really says nothing. Buyer beware..

Wow! This a good book! So many stances,techniques and extreme detail in the words and pictures!Obviously Mr. Daniels has much expierience.