Shotokan Dictionary
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| The Cover of Shotokan Dictionary |
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Here is a book that I have been meaning to review for some time. It is a marvelous resource book written by a man named Schlatt. I tried to find his first name in the book, but he simply goes by Schlatt. What's more, is that he has chosen very nice Japanese characters for his name, and in English can be translated as “a man who likes liquor”. Very nice.
This book is a definitive work on karate terminology and extremely thorough. I couldn't think of a single term that he has not covered in this very nice text. Schlatt has organized this text very nicely and has taken considerable time to make a quality text. He covers everything from pronunciation to numbers to kata names to movement, stances, postures, and all the names of different waza. Some of them are quite exotic and very thought-provoking, as in “Hmm” how does that work now?
I like this book a lot, and since it was recommended to me by a friend to buy, my copy is getting rather dog-eared. Should you decide to pick up this text I am sure that you will find it as useful as I have. The design of the book is really nice. It is printed on high quality paper and nicely laid out. Good job!!
If I have any criticism of the text it is with the dojo kun and the niju kun translations. Schlatt has taken the very poor “original” English translations and left it at that. There is much more to the dojo kun than what we receive diluted through the much chanted, “Seek Perfection of Character! Be Faithful”. blah blah blah. As a quality translator I am sure that Schlatt could dissect and really show much of the linguistic meanings behind the Japanese characters and terminology. Nevertheless, it seems like no Shotokan dictionary would be complete without these two things, so there they are.
The book also has some short explanations of “karate philosophies”, and they are all right as well. Personally, I prefer more of an essayist approach to such things, but if Schlatt followed my lousy advice his book would be about 500 pages instead of the 200 it is. I hope he writes more on these things. The man knows his stuff.
This text, complete with an easy to use index is ideal for any karate student who has been around for a couple of years and plans to be around for a few more. Highly recommended for any karate-ka of intermediate level and up.
Thanks for a great book Schlatt. I shall thumb through it often while quaffing a beer or two!
Kanpai!!
Mark Groenewold Kanazawa, Japan October, 2002
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