I'm not sure what to think of this one, it's a bit confusing for me considering who wrote it and his track record in the past.
There is useful information included in the book, a lot of biographical information about Shinken Taira that I honestly didn't know previously and quite a few kobujutsu kata described in it. There is also some information about old kobujutsu masters like Aragaki, Matsumura, Sakugawa and others.
Unfortunately, except for the cover, there isn't one old photograph of Shinken Taira himself. Why not? What possible reason could there be to not have ONE?
The writing is a little stiff, almost like a transliteration rather than a translation and much of the information included is just lists of members of Taira's organizations at various points and their teaching ranks.
The old history of past masters is limited, un-verified anecdotes mostly, and all very cursory information, not much useful detail with any sort of verification of where the information may have come from. The translator certainly didn't add any of this to the mix, which would have been nice.
Overall, the more I think about it, even as I write this review, I realize that there's more bad than good, which is why I give it a 2 star rating rather than a 3.
I would only buy this book if you are a big kobudo practitioner or you are a die hard karate and kobudo history nut. It came as a surprise to me that this book was so unsatisfying, especially after reading "Bubishi" which is an excellent book well worth your time.
