After a long wait, it’s finally here: the new edition of Patrick McCarthy’s Tanpenshu (2024). Funakoshi Gichin (1868–1957) was a fascinating figure in Japanese martial arts history and a peer of the karate masters Yabu Kentsū (1866–1937), Hanashiro Chōmo (1869–1945) and Motobu Chōki (1870–1944). Best known for popularising karate in mainland Japan, Funakoshi was also a prolific writer. He wrote a large number of treatises during his lifetime. Tanpenshu offers a selected number of these in English translation. And the book also offers what I believe to be the most comprehensive collection of photographs of the old master. I have already expressed my appreciation of this work in my very brief foreword to it. But I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the author once again on this fine publication. It is a wonderful book, a valuable collection of Funakoshi Gichin’s texts and other studies, which I highly recommend.
Investigations into the history of karate 