Empty Hand. The Essence of Budo Karate

Mabuni-sensei's love of karate drips off every page of this magnificent work. His insights into karate old and new are priceless and it is so important that he has committed them to posterity. As he says in the book, karate is much like a orphaned child that has struggled to find its way. The loss of many of the early documents of karate with the tragic destruction of archives and dojos during the second World War, as well as various prohibitions on teaching and the long established tradition of solely oral transmission means that karate's history is piecemeal at best, causing many students to question what is at the heart of practice. Mabuni-sensei illuminates this heart through his memories of his father and his dedication to the Empty Hand. An eye-opener to students of any style.

The author is well respected – you probably already know that from looking into buying this book. But for as great as he may be, this book is written like an unsolved jigsaw puzzle. Chapters - if you really want to call them that - are more like journal entries. Information is heavily fragmented, and often repeated in multiple sections. There is little organization.There are some really great nuggets of information in this book, but piecing everything together to form coherent lessons is tedious. I wouldn’t recommend reading this until at least becoming yudansha – because making sense of it all takes just as much patience as getting to dan rank.

A long-winded speech.A handful of interesting things.Very below Funakoshi, Nagamine and Motobu works.

Easy to read book in which less common principels of karate by the son of Kenwa Mabuni founder of Shito Ryu are explained. Also the reletionship between sensei Funakoshi and Kenwa Mabuni and their role in Okinawan karate is described.

Gives one a good impression of the original philosophy behind Karate.The book seems to have been translated from German. At certain places the English text changed to German for a few words in my Kindle version.

Empty Hand - The Essence of Budo Karate is a must have book for any Shito-Ryu practitioner. It is not a "how-to" book, but a book full of explanation of Kenei Mabuni's traditional karate and of his past. Details of Kata and their origin are detailed in an easy to read fashion. The book title says it all about this book.

I believe this book was worth the money. Lots of good techniques etc. etc. ok o o o o o

if you're one of the endangered species of those who, in the jaded, post-mma era still cling to the hope of finding credible, authentic rationales of traditional karate as legitimate budo, and who have evolved past the false 'EITHER/OR' dichotomy in framing the 'spiritual'/'practical' debate...this is a beauty...

Excellent exploration of the work of Mabuni Kenwa, founder of Shito Ryu, as passed on by through his son Kenei. Not so much a 'how-to' book as an account of a master's thoughts over a lifetime in karate.

Excellent book by the eldest son of the founder of Shitoryu karate. Provides useful information to karate students and stresses the danger to the martial art from an over-emphasis on Sport karate. Recommended for all senior students and instructors.

lots of great information

hard read but good info

A great book everything I was after.