This is the first book to dissect the lore and reveal the origins and purpose of the art of shotokan. It describes how karate was invented by the world's only unarmed bodyguards to protect the world's only unarmed king against Americans. In 1853, before the American Civil War, the king of Okinawa was caught in a confrontation between the shogun's implacable samurai and an invading force of U.S. Marines. Trapped between katana and bayonets, the king's unarmed guards faced impossible odds and narrowly avoided a costly bloodbath.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Bruce D. Clayton, PhD, has studied the art of karate since 1973. He holds a seventh-degree black belt in Shotokan karate and he is the creator of Jein Do, a self-defense course for young women. He is the author of the Black Medicine series, Fallout Survival, Life After Doomsday, Life After Terrorism, and Thinking About Survival. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, the CBS Evening News, Today, and the Tomorrow Show. He lives in Yosemite, California.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Complete Game-Changer,
This review is from: Shotokan's Secret-Expanded Edition: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins (With New Material) (Paperback)
This is NOT a book on how to position your hands and feet to "do the kata"; there are plenty of those and they don't know WHY. This is a book on WHY we do the moves we do, and how they work.
It starts with the history, the situation, and the players. What were they trying to accomplish? Digging through the historical records (largely covered in the original edition). What did they originally come up with? A tremendous amount of Karate "archeology", digging through the kata in old films, other styles, putting it together - you can see the PhD researcher was here. But why that collection of moves? This is the Game-Changing breakthrough of the Expanded Edition. The Kata are not a random set of vaguely related moves, a dance around the floor practicing general moves. They are a TACTICAL lesson and a drill of moves for a SPECIFIC type of opponent. How to defeat a sword-wielding samurai bureaucrat (Pinan Shodan) or a fully armored samurai warrior (Pinan Yondan) with your empty hands and skill. In the process, we also realize why Pinan Shodan, a much harder kata, was taught before Pinan Nidan - it was more important to know. Funakoshi's situation was different, so he changed the order with Heian Shodan and Heian Nidan, for teaching reasons rather than tactical reasons. Truly scientific research requires this sort of unexpected findings. So the world of Shotokan Kata has changed. Kata are our textbook and our workbook, but they are no longer just a catalog of moves. Each is a specific lesson on the moves and methods to defeat a specific enemy. If you don't know the enemy and why we are fighting him in precisely this fashion, you don't know the kata. And "Train harder" is no longer that answer.
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, if questionable, look at karate history,
By
This review is from: Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins (Paperback)
In "Shotokan's Secret", Bruce Clayton seeks to understand the environment under which Shotokan's parent art, Shuri-te, originated and developed. He paints a picture of an Okinawa in which every administrator in the royal court was a deadly practitioner of unarmed combat, and brutish Samurai and US Marines were the chief agressors, intent on deposing the puppet king of the island. The descriptions are quite vivid and, if such circumstances are assumed to be true, might very well explain why Shotokan developed as it did, with the emphasis on long-ranged techniques, deep stances, and virtually no grappling.
The primary problem I have with this book is that the situation that Clayton presents, which is necessary if we are to accept his logic about Shotokan's development, is based largely on supposition. The records of Okinawa during this time period are scarce at best, by the author's admission. What he does is look at modern bodyguard doctrine, and the kata found in Shotokan, and try to find a convenient place for the two to merge. It's as if, in realizing that his round peg won't fit into the square hole of reality, he decides to simply carve his own hole. In addition, he admits that the circumstances that he imagines Shuri-te developed under are impractical for modern self-defense. So, then, it becomes at best a point of historical interest; at worst, it's a vivid imagination at work, trying to justify modern Shotokan's less-than-realistic modern practices. That said, this book has many points in it that I enjoy. His descriptions of the Tokugawa shogunate and the social order it strictly enforced, coupled with his explainations of honne and tatemae, should be required reading for any student of the Japanese arts. His bunkai, while a little unrealistic at times (when's the last time you wore a jacket and had four people all grab the collar area?), is certainly fun to play with; specifically, his interpretation of Tekki movements as the use of a human shield caught my eye. And lastly... very much lastly... if we assume his suppositions of the Shuri Crucible to be accurate, Shotokan's movements suddenly make much more sense. To summarize, Clayton basically says, "This is the environment in which Shotokan developed; it's unnecessary to keep it this way, so it's OK to change it to fit our current needs, but of course I've got no evidence about that first part anyway." It's much more interesting to look at it from the point of view of a lesson of Japanese/Okinawan culture as opposed to a solid book on history or even bunkai. It makes for an extremely interesting read, despite some grandious claims (that Matsumura "invented" linear techniques, as if no one threw a straight punch before 1850). Students of culture might find it most useful, as well as anyone looking to justify the deep stances and long techniques of modern Shotokan karate, but the `history' is questionable at best. Read with a discriminating eye.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What Are You Waiting For?,
By Colin Wee "Chief Instructor, Hikaru Ryu Genda... (Perth, Western Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Shotokan's Secret-Expanded Edition: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins (With New Material) (Paperback)
I am a 5th Dan Traditional Taekwondo Instructor here in Australia. In 2003, I started doing research into my system, exploring several hard style systems and doing extensive bunkai analysis of traditional taekwondo patterns. I was simply looking for some clarity to improve my teaching syllabus.
Along the way I have met a handful of instructors and authors who are on the same path as myself. Some are ahead of me, and some who have not as yet caught up to me. These people however all seem to have the perceptiveness of 'old school' training yet an inquisitiveness from just being stubborn about looking for the truth. I like these practitioners - they cut through fads and trends, and set the standard using their own personal benchmarks. In 2005, I counted myself lucky to have stumbled upon a gem of a book 'Shotokan's Secret' from author Dr Bruce Clayton. Dr Clayton Sensei's book clearly marked him as a person who was even more "stubborn" than me in "looking for the truth." The book apparently started off with an "innocent quest" to find a portrait for one Yasutsune Azato, Shotokan's Founder Gichin Funakoshi's first teacher. From my review of the first edition, I said that after picking up my copy of the book, I "have not been able to stop reading it." The easy narrative builds a compelling look into the life and times of the founders of modern karate - painting a picture of the risks they faced and the obstacles they had to surmount. No longer are we dealing with ancient mountain dwelling hermits, these were real men, and real lives were at stake. I could not stop turning pages because all of a sudden I had a story in my hands that gave me a very plausible reason for why we do what we do. My style is different from yours for a reason, and this book made it all the more clear. I count myself doubly lucky then to have initiated an email conversation with Dr Clayton which led to me visiting and training with him when I traveled to the United States in 2006. In the last few years, our email dialog has continued. I have also continued my practise of traditional taekwondo, which includes taekwondo patterns from the mid 1950s and some old style Okinawan patterns at black belt level. My continued research into making traditional systems applicable for modern day practise continues to give me insights as I practise and train. These are high-level personal thoughts I share with Dr Clayton. In many of his replies, Dr Clayton would cryptically remark "you're going to love the new book." I had a niggling feeling that the sequel could not be better than the first book. How could it? And how could this guy come up with such high level stuff - which I have slogged to gain after 25+ years, and how would he be able to put it down on paper? My doubts however have been laid to rest. The expanded edition is literally a treasure trove of information and a martial art masterpiece. Dr Clayton has taken karate, dissected it, organised it, and literally hammered the living s*** out of it. All the unanswered questions you've got for your Japanese or Korean based systems are there. The book in it's current form presents a lens to look at the architect of modern day shotokan karate. If you've heard quibbles that Karate is this, and Karate is that - they're right. Shotokan Karate is a system designed for a specific purpose, and this purpose might not fully be congruent with the yardstick of challenges you use to measure it with. But why don't you pick up the book and find out why. The expanded version contains 130 over pages of pictures which match really amazing applications to the Heian katas. Say goodbye to what you thought you know of your system. I have made it compulsory for every one of my traditional taekwondo students to purchase a copy of Dr Clayton's book. Can you imagine that? A Taekwondo instructor telling his students to get a Shotokan Karate book! Wait till they read the book and find out the architect of Taekwondo was a Shotokan practitioner himself! I highly recommend the book if you are serious at all in your martial arts training, or have lost your way, or have too many questions left unanswered. I have promoted the book at my blog [...] - and am happy to discuss your views there. Colin Wee 5th Dan Traditional Taekwondo
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