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Koto Ryu: Striking Techniques of the Tiger Felling School [Print Replica] Kindle Edition
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- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJanuary 4, 2021
- File size18497 KB
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Product details
- ASIN : B08S3CN5D3
- Publisher : Eric Michael Shahan (January 4, 2021)
- Publication date : January 4, 2021
- Language : English
- File size : 18497 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Not enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Not Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,493,277 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #782 in Education Research (Kindle Store)
- #2,223 in Research Reference Books
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Hi, I've been living, studying and training in Japan for over 15 years. My goal is to share some of the cool, fascinating and mysterious teachings that can be found in Japanese martial arts manuals. For the most part these books have never been translated before. Thanks for your interest!
eric shahan
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Koto Ryu offers hard-hitting strikes, throws, and grapples. It's often a subordinate discipline with Bujinkan (ninjitsu). The art is in the text. Unfortunately, most of the illustrations depict vital areas and rarely fully illustrate techniques. I would recommend supplementing study with some extensive, and videos that are readily and freely available online.
The manual contains movements roughly approximately Jack Dempsey's heralded drop step, and a full exploration of feinting ("the lie") to veil the attack ("the truth"). Artful language notwithstanding, the vital points offered aren't dim mak or other hokum. There's certainly some overstatement of what pressure points can do, but the emphasis is on hitting where the target is vulnerable as opposed to "one touch knockout" magic finger fantasies. For instance, one places the thumb atop the fist for stability -- similar to the egregious boxing foul of "thumbing." In this context, the thumb also hits and neck and between the ribs. Kicks are intended for knockdowns. Pinions, arm wraps, and holding while hitting reflect martial realities without gloves. Some of the "no gi" grabs are downright nasty, turning soft parts of the body -- neck, armpits, crotch -- into handles. Strikes apply body weight and the opponent's momentum, and occasional lunging attacks, to drive power through the opponent.
The book has surprising, though incidental, similarities to some modern self-defense systems, which emphasize leveling strikes to vital points, joint manipulations, throws, and knockdowns intended to injure on impact. To a degree, the Koto Ryu system looks like a blend of atemi waza striking combinations, along with karate-jutsu and jujutsu. Worth studying for a "pocket system" of destructive techniques. The emphasis on grabs, and finger and thumb techniques, would require some degree of hand strengthening and conditioning.
While there's useful material, this book requires video supplements, offers few technique depictions beyond the textual descriptions, and doesn't provide a complete system. If you want manuals you can train heavily with, seek out Shahan's "Karate Jutsu" (Motobu Choki) and his "Jiujitsu 1913."
Ultimately, it's nice to read original sources without being fluent in Japanese. One can cut out the nonsense, and bypass frauds selling systems -- especially anything even tangentially tied to "Ninjitsu," which is particularly prone to self-serving mythologists.