This book covers Sensei Kanazawa’s early life before karate which was certainly busy. The book charts his progress through school, family life and certain character building events. His path into karate is covered in detail, touching on many famous karate and non-karate instructors of that period, including Sensei Funakoshi!
The book details the formation of the JKA and other Japanese karate federations, including the seeding of karate in other countries – including Great Britain which makes interesting reading. Sports karate is also formed during his lifetime.
Overall the book was good, similar to Sensei Funakoshi’s Karate-Do, My Way of Life. The book was littered with small stories, some interesting some not so much. It was good insight into how modern karate was formed and introduced to non-Japanese countries. It also covers some of the political strife that caused the fragmentation of the first few karate associations. Well worth a read especially for black belts wishing to extend their general karate knowledge