(from dustjacket)

Linking the time when karate was a strictly Okinawan art of self-defense shrouded in the deepest secrecy and the present day, when it has become a martial art practiced throughout the world, is Gichin Funakoshi, the 'Father of Karate-do'.

Out of modesty, he was reluctant to write this autobiograhy and did not do so until he was nearly ninety years of age. Trained in the confucian classics, he was a schoolteacher early in life, but, after decades of study under the formost masters, he gave up his livelihood to devote the rest or his life to the propagation of the Way of Karate. Under his guidance, tecniques and nomenclature were refined and modernized, the spiritual essence was brought to the fore, and karate evolved into a true martial art.

Various forms of empty-hand techniques have been practiced in Okinawa for centuries, but due to the lack of historical records, fancy oftern masquerades as fact. In telling of his own famous teachers-and not only of the mastry of their technique but of the way they acted in critical situations--the author reveals what true karate is. The stories he tells about himself are no less instructive: his determination to continue the art, after having started it to improve his health; his perseverence in the face of difficulties, even of poverty; his strict observance of the way of life of the samurai; and the spirit of self-reliance that he carried into an old age kept healthy by his practice of Karate-do.

Contents

Foreword, Preface
Entering the Way
Training for Life
Recognition
One Life
Important Points
The Past, the Future

Fantastic book. I am sure I will read it again. ( )

some quotes:
p. viii: "Movement is nonmovement, nonmovement is movement."

p. 15: "One of [Azato's] maxims was, 'When you practice Karate think of your arms and legs as swords.'"

p. 28 (Spoken by Matsumurua): "Today I'm a wiser man than I was yesterday. I'm a human being and a human being is a vulnerable creature, who cannot possibly be perfect. After he dies, he returns to the elements -- to earth, to water, to fire, to wind, to air. Matter is void. All is vanity. We are like blades of grass or trees of the forest, creations of the universe, of the spirit of the universe, and the spirit of the universe has neither life nor death. Vanity is the only obstacle to life."

( )

Gichin Funakoshi's autobiography. Good read.

http://thebookwormslibrary.com/?p=512 ( )