Any book recommendations?

Bigwill

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I purchased 'The Ninja and their Secret Fighting Art' by SKH and 'The Essence of Ninjutsu' by Hatsumi Sensei.

I can see by some of the older threads here at MT that SKH doesn't have a great reputation (for whatever reason--I've seen the word 'liar' thrown about, and would be very interested to know why he fits that description), but I bought the books before finding this site.

I'm reading the SKH book first (about halfway through right now), and am enjoying it. It's kind of corny at points--especially his internal monologue--but the information is there, and he does a decent job of putting the reader in his shoes.

I'll tackle Hatsumi Sensei's book next. From these threads and from Amazon review, it seems as though nobody 'likes' Hatsumi Sensei's books. One either LOVES them or HATES them. I hope I'm in the former camp, but I can't know without reading one.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for books I should check out? (If possible, please make the recommendations in the form of books that are still in print or at least readily accessible.)

Thanks!
 
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Bigwill

Bigwill

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I was thinking about Soke Tanemura's book, but it's $100 on Amazon. I'll check out your link. Thanks.
 

Chris Parker

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Hmm, recommendations for reading... this isn't as easy as it should be (after EWBell took the easy one!). The main reason is that many of the most 'accessible' books, such as the Hayes ones and History and Traditions (which was basically ghost-written by Hayes) contain a reasonable amount of information that you would then have to 'unlearn'. Most of Hatsumi's books are not easy to understand until you get a handle on the way that Hatsumi expresses himself.

Honestly, I'd just grab what you want as it comes up, and remember that none of them are the full story, so it helps to then cross-reference what each says. Just steer clear of anything with Antony Cummins name attached to it.
 

Aiki Lee

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If you want to read about individuals there is Takamatsu Toshitsugu: The Last Shinobi by Wolfgang Ettig. Fujita Seiko: The Last Koga Ninja by Phillip Hevener.
 

Razor

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Chris Parker

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One more for the history side, recently there was a publication of a book detailing the history of Takagi Oriemon, founder of the Takagi Yoshin Ryu, put out by the Jinenkan Honbu. The translation was done by people such as Dr Stephen Greenfield, and is on that count alone highly recommended. I'm waiting to get a copy myself once a few other things are organised...

It can be found here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/takagi-oriemon-budo-hero-of-shiroishi/16173198
 

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