Customer Reviews

The Martial Arts Encyclopedia

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

 

 

Ms. Lawler has done a pretty fair job of putting together an encyclopedia on the martial arts. However, there are some major flaws: 1) her discussion of Chinese as a spoken language is misleading and confusing. The encyclopedia includes terms from both Cantonese and Mandarin (without discussing dialects in any form) and uses several Romanization systems. However, she only provides one pronunciation guide for Chinese. Chinese is NOT a spoken language, there are numerous spoken Chinese dialects. 2) On page 260, Ms. Lawler states that China "conquered" Okinawa in the 16th century. This NEVER happened! 3) On page 45, Ms. Lawler states that Judo practitioners wear fundoshis (loin cloths) and zoris (straw sandals). What training sessions has she attended where she saw this? On one wore this apparel at the recent Atlanta Olympics. 4) Editing, copy editing in particular, was very uneven. There were numerous misspellings/typoes throughout the work. 5) Her treatment of style founders was rather uneven. In some cases she provided the founders' names, others she didn't, even if they were readily available (ie., the founders of Chinese Goju Ryu Karate and Chito Ryu Karate). I did enjoy her "Countries of Origin" section, which is somewhat unique in this type of encyclopedia (despite the grievous historical error on page 260). Her inclusion of Vietnames martial arts is also to be praised as few authors before Ms. Lawlor have seen it fit to mention them to any great length, if at all

Martial art enclyclopedias should be written by authors with indepth knowledge and hands on experience in the arts included in their book. Yes this will take a lifetime of training but if not what we get is rehashed misinformation, taken from previous dictionaries.

Professional writers who engage in the arts as a hobby are obviously oblivious to the more in depth details of classical Asian martial arts.

I cannot comment on the Korean sphere of arts, nor in depth on the Chinese, but on the other hand, call the Japanese segment by what they truly are: rehashed misinformation on classical as well as modern Japanese martial arts.

Should someone want an accurate dictionary?...Ask for old copies of Budo Jiten, until next year, when the 1st translation of Hyaku Jiten no Bugei hits the stands.

While the author seems to get most of the Korean information right, she misses as often as she hits when trying to deal with Chinese and Japanese subject matter.

Poorly researched and poorly written. A waste of time, money and trees.

Lawler's book is a good example of someone with a powerful interest in a subject, but lacks the follow-through to be a truly great book. The range of the arts covered are vast, though often skimping on the details, and with a heavy focus on Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and other eastern martial arts. If you're interested in comparing techniques from one school to another, this book will not help as it tends toward the cursory review of technical and strategic styles, and seems to lean more heavily on the history of a school. It also has a habit of throwing in some "dirty little secret" about a specific art, like required gifts to the head of a school, that just aren't really true anymore. If you're a beginner, this book will help lay the foundation. If you are interested in having a basic research tool as a place to start, this book will also probably serve you well.

Excellent brief introduction to a wide variety of subjects having to do with the martial arts. Sometimes, I wish the coverage was not quite so brief but, all in all, this is an excellent book and meets the need for general information quite admirably.

I bought this book a year ago and I keep using it to look up martial arts information. Although some of the entries could be longer, the book introduces lots of styles, techniques and related information. It's a great place to start if you have a martial arts question or just want to know more about martial arts.

This is a good reference book to have in your library. It is essentially a dictionary that has about four different sections. The most interesting section lists every discipline imaginable and provides brief information on each. However, there is alot of info that may be of not much interest (what an Axe Kick, Front Kick, Roundhouse is.) It may be of particular interest to those that practice and/or are interested in most stand-up fighting disciplines (Kung Fu, TKD, JKD, etc.) Not a must but nice to own.