Customer Reviews

Sword Of The Samurai: The Classical Art Of Japanese Swordsmanship

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A bad copy of Japanese Swordsmanship: Technique and Practice by Donn Draeger and Gordon Warner. Numerous errors and mis-statments make it clear the auther is not an authority on the subject.

I liked this book for lots of reasons. Because it covers swordsmanship history, sword history (parts, types, how they're made, etc.) culture, tradition , spiritual strategies (zen), uniforms, fighting postures, suburito -bokken- basic training, bokken etiquette, kenjutsu, kumitachi (2 person katas), Iai etiquette, Iai Katas, care of the sword (tying the sword cord, tying the sword bag, etc.) Good pictures, a very well made book, it's simply beautiful, and really useful. It's a must have!

As with most of Parulski's works, this suffers from a lack of focus. Attempting to cover too much material and including material not on the subject is a Parulski trademark and he has a field day here.

Let me bgin by saying I'm a practioner of the sword. I bought the book because I wanted to learn of other styles. At first the book will look okay. But as you learn about the sword, there are small "signs" that tell you something is off.

The biggest boo boo to me is the "Kamaes" or positions. A good general rule is to see if you can easily cut from any position, this cannot be done on figure 6.10 on page 38 or in figures 6.3 & 6.4 on page 36. But my real rpoblem is with figure 6.9 on page 38. You would NEVER extend an arm out. In sword fighting, the last thing you want to do is give them a closer and easier target. Placing an arm out in front of you, especially your left (it is your "cutting" arm, or the arm that powers the sword) is flirting with danger.

If your looking for "classical" swordsmanship, this is not the book. If accuracy is not important to you. Then enjoy, you'll like the moves you'll learn, they look cool, just aren't practical.