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Shotokan Karate Secrets Revealed!

VALENCIA, Calif., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- (BLACK BELT) In this expanded edition of the acclaimed Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins, author Bruce D. Clayton cracks open the kata with new insights into their meaning and purpose. The expanded edition features new artwork, archival lithographs, photographic sequences and six never-before-seen chapters.

Shotokan's Secret Expanded Edition is filled with extensive historical research that shows serious students and karate enthusiasts why shotokan remains one of the world's most influential arts. It analyzes the enemies that unarmed Okinawan bodyguards like Sokon Matsumura and Yasutsune Itosu faced. From there, Shotokan's Secret delves deeply into the heian kata, revealing how each heian form contains the key techniques for defeating Okinawa's adversaries.

The founders of shotokan karate devised these survival skills to overcome impossible odds. When the king of Okinawa found himself trapped between samurai occupiers and U.S. Marines, his unarmed bodyguards answered these threats by creating the cornerstone of hard-style karate: the heian kata. Modern masters pass down these technical forms to their students, but their martial applications remained a mystery--until now.

Hundreds of books have been published since Gichin Funakoshi's To-Te Jitsu in 1920, but Clayton's expanded Shotokan's Secret is the only one to dissect the lore, dig into the history and analyze the art. With Shotokan's Secret, you'll discover karate's true purpose.

    Shotokan's Secret Expanded Edition: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's
     Fighting Origins
    By Bruce D. Clayton, Ph.D.
                                                             $19.95 | Code 512
    381 pgs. | B/W illustrations
    ISBN: 978-0-89750-188-0
    www.blackbeltmag.com/shotokan_secret_2

About the Author

Bruce D. Clayton, Ph.D., holds a seventh-degree black belt in shotokan karate and has studied the art since 1973. He is the author of several books, including Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, the CBS Evening News, Today and The Tomorrow Show.

About Black Belt

Black Belt is the world's leading martial arts magazine and is dedicated to the classical and the eclectic martial arts. For more on Black Belt and its line of books and DVDs, visit blackbeltmag.com.

SOURCE Black Belt