This book covers the fascinating story of the first thirty years of the making of a world-class karate master. Masao Kawasoe was born in Korea in 1945 and, after studying judo, began training in Shotokan under Master Katsunori Tsuyama, in 1960, before successfully grading for his black belt under Minoru Miyata in 1963. Awarded a full karate scholarship to the infamous Takushoku University, upon completion of his degree, Kawasoe was then invited to attend the JKA Instructors Course for a further two years under Masters Nakayama, Kanazawa and Shoji.
Destined to travel, Master Kawasoe became a JKA instructor to Taiwan and then pioneered Shotokan in Madagascar, before settling in Great Britain in 1974.
MASAO KAWASOE, 8th DAN, is a wonderful read by the foremost writer on Shotokan in the world, and describes one man’s dedicated journey along the Shotokan path.Told in the Master’s own words, and accompanied by a large number of historical photographs, the ups and downs of becoming a senior karate instructor are related with both frankness and honesty.
A book on Master Kawasoe is long overdue … and the wait has definitely been worthwhile.
PLUS SECOND BOOK
Master Masao Kawasoe and the Foundations of Shotokan Karate Technique by Dr. Clive Layton. This book is an engaging, highly informative, thought-provoking and interactive read that could well prove to be the most important in-depth technical treatise on Shotokan karate ever written. Master Kawasoe, 8th Dan, a world-renown Shotokan technician of fifty years experience, describes, using just one stance, two variations of one type of punch and two types of block, what he believes underpins all Shotokan technique. The book details a bio-mechanical five-step sequence of inward actions that pick-up, momentarily store and channel energy, and the outward process of delivering and focussing that energy – all in about one-fifth of a second!
Master Masao Kawasoe and the Foundations of Shotokan Karate Technique will surely last the test of time, for not only is it a wonderfully innovative work, but because it clearly explains, in a reader friendly manner, the very essence of what makes Master Kawasoe’s karate so special.
From the world’s leading writer on Shotokan andauthor of such classics as Shotokan Dawn, Funakoshi on Okinawa, Kanazawa, 10th Dan, and, The Liverpool Red Triangle Karate Club, comes another brilliantly constructed and researched work
Product Code: MK1
