Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsOK...but....
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2017
Having read and very much liked some of John Stevens other martial artist's biographies, I was looking forward to this having in the last few years taken up kyudo. However, given that copious amounts of literature and documentation had been written about his previous main subjects (Kano and Ueshiba), I was worried that either this book would suffer from lack of primary sources, and/or if it would fall into the 'Zen and the Art of Archery Part Deaux' cult. Regardless, understanding the controversial nature of Awa-Sensei and Herrigel, I was interested in how Stevens would tackle it.
Unfortunately, he largely doesn't.
The book is small, and extremely short. There are barely 20 pages dedicated to Awa's life. Then, there's roughly 40 pages of Awa aphorisms (valuable too be sure, but...) and then a few stories at the end about archery in general, none of which mention anything about Awa (presumably favorites of his?).
In fact, the most engaging part is in the Notes section at the end where Stevens, w/o any real context, attacks 'small-fry academics' (of which, of course, he must not be one) for their criticisms of Awa. I imagine here he's referring to Shoji Yamada, whom, not to throw stones, headed the 2003 symposium @ the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies on the direction of budo, which included the likes of esteemed scholars Karl Friday, Anton Geesink, Alexander Bennett, and Meik Skoss (and not John Stevens), so, glass houses and all.
In the end, I can't escape the feeling that this book was written for money, and not to add to the subject matter (of which it certainly could have done). It's table-top Zen, with some archery background thrown in.
Ultimately, I'm glad I have it - there is a paucity or literature on kyudo in general - and will certainly ponder some of the aphorisms, but for me it misses the mark entirely, and is lacking the rigor that I came to expect from Stevens.
