cover image The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate: The Spiritual Legacy of the Master

The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate: The Spiritual Legacy of the Master

Gichin Funakoshi. Kodansha International (JPN), $18 (127pp) ISBN 978-4-7700-2796-2

""All martial arts begin and end with rei respect and esteem. Unless they are practiced with a feeling of reverence and respect, they are simply forms of violence. For this reason martial arts must maintain rei from beginning to end."" Thus ends the first of this book's 20 short commentaries on the art of Karate-do, written not by Okinawa-born Karate master Funakoshi (1868-1957) but by his disciple Nakasone (1895-1978), who amplifies each of Funakoshi's 20 one-sentence""principles"" into a two- or three-page section. Here in English for the first time, in a clear and economical translation from Teramoto (president of Shotokan Karate of America's Black Belt Council), the book moves from rei to Nakasone's stress on""the absolute necessity of patience and forbearance"" to Funakoshi admonitions like""Calamity Springs from Carelessness."" Removing the book's understated dust jacket exposes a lovely red crushed paper binding, with black embossing and endlpapers, just one hint at the non-ostentatious elegance displayed throughout the text. The subtitle is apt; while focused on the practice and application of martial arts, this book's""pursuit of the way"" has myriad applications for less physical forms of combat, work-related or otherwise.