Review: An English Translation of the Texts of the Takenouchi School

Title: An English Translation of the Texts of the Takenouchi School of Japanese Classical Martial Arts: An Historical, Pedagogical, and Philosophical Study

Author: Andrew Antis

Publisher: The Edwin Mellen Press

Publication Date: 2013

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 744, 6.25 in x 9 in

Cover Price: $379.95

ISBN: 978-0773426337

Content

Dr Andrew Antis received his PhD in philosophy and religion with a concentration in Asian and comparative studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2009. He studied judo in the 1970s, aikido in the 1980s and 1990s, and the Takenouchi-ryū Bitchūden style of jūjutsu in the 2000s. He has been a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University since 2010.

An English Translation of the Texts of the Takenouchi School is a book that hardly anyone will come across in their martial arts studies. The Edwin Mellen Press published the book in 2013, and the cheapest copies for sale are sold on the publisher’s Web site. Copies on the secondary market sell for twice as much. I obtained this copy via inter-library loan.

The core of the book consists of translations and commentary of two works:

The first includes pages 10-70 from a book published by Gakken Kenkyusha in 1993 titled Shinden No Bujutsu Takenouchi-ryū, or The Martial Arts of Divine Transmission: The Takenouchi School, by Jiromaru Akiho and Takenouchi Tōichirō Hisamune, 14th headmaster of the system.

The second includes pages 106-134 and 230-242 from a book published in 1979 by Nichibo Shuppansha titled Nihon Jūjutsu No Genryū Takenouchi-ryū, or Origins of Japanese Jujutsu: The Takenouchi School, by the Takenouchi-ryū Henshū Iinkai, or The Takenouchi School Editorial Committee. 

The remainder of this book consists of a few other translated works, along with additional prose.

Pros

I sought out this book, waiting months due to Covid-19, because there are so few English language resources on Takenouchi-ryū. Most scholars consider the style to be the oldest extant jujutsu school, dating back to 1532. To the extent that the author translates material from two rare books published in Japanese about the school, it is a definite contribution to the material available for research and further study.

Cons

I have multiple concerns with this book. 

First, it took dedicated research to describe exactly what the book includes. The clearest explanation of the contents appears on pages 8 and 9, but unfortunately page 8 suffers from a formatting error (a missed bullet) that confuses the issue. The author does not translate both book titles, or make it clear what is a title, or an “author,” such as the Takenouchi-ryū Henshū Iinkai, or The Takenouchi School Editorial Committee. For a book that makes such a big deal about translating materials for an English-reading audience, this was disappointing.

Second, the book is not well organized or edited. It was not always easy to tell when the author had finished his pre-translation commentaries and where the translations themselves began. As someone who has edited, copy-edited, rewritten, and written multiple books, I am positive that this book either completely lacked an editor, or suffered from an incompetent editor. A real editor could have resolved so many issues, taking the role of the reader and challenging the author’s approach.

Third, this book lacks focus and any sense of objectivity. The book is presented as a scholarly work, with welcome footnotes and original Japanese text. Unfortunately, the author, a practitioner of the Takenouchi-ryū, feels free to describe his instructors as “some of the most exemplary human beings he has ever known” (p 24). I understand seeing this sort of material in the acknowledgements, perhaps, but it undercuts the reader’s trust in the author to see language like this in the main body of the work. 

Fourth, I have no idea why the publisher sells this book for nearly $400. As shown in the graphic below, the text appears like it was produced by a combination of an early laser printer and a dot-matrix inkjet.

If you look closely, you’ll see each letter is made of “dots.” I’ve never seen this in another professionally published book.

Conclusion

I give this book 2 out of 5 ninja stars.

I removed one star for poor organization and editing, one star for verbosity and lack of focus, and one star for poor production quality and price.

Those really interested in learning more about the Takenouchi-ryū are probably the only students who can justify the extraordinary steps required to obtain this book. They are also probably the only audience who will tolerate the text’s idiosyncrasies and other detractions. I could see the author working with a dedicated editor to radically reorganize and strip down the book to its core value proposition, and republish it at a price in the $30 range. Otherwise, feel free to skip this book. 

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Richard Bejtlich

Richard took his first martial arts classes in judo, karate, boxing, and combatives as a cadet at the US Air Force Academy in 1990, and continued practicing several styles until 2001. He resumed training in 2016 by practicing within the Krav Maga Global system, earning Graduate 1 rank. Richard now studies Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Team Pedro Sauer. Richard is married and has two daughters, and as a cybersecurity professional he helps organizations find and remove computer hackers. Richard is co-author, with Anna Wonsley, of the book Reach Your Goal: Stretching and Mobility Exercises for Fitness, Personal Training, and Martial Arts.

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