Koto Ryu: Striking Techniques of the Tiger Felling School Paperback – January 5, 2021

The alluring title and never-before-translated scroll draws you in. Eric Shahan offers a masterful translation, with caveats regarding historical errors, vagaries, and cautions not use it as a training methodology. However, Shahan makes careful corrections and clarifications, and allows the concepts and strategies to shine. The book has historical value, and is worthy of thoughtful study for underlying techniques.Koto Ryu offers hard-hitting strikes, throws, and grapples. It's often a subordinate discipline with Bujinkan (ninjitsu). The art is in the text. Unfortunately, most of the illustrations depict vital areas and rarely fully illustrate techniques. I would recommend supplementing study with some extensive, and videos that are readily and freely available online.The manual contains movements roughly approximately Jack Dempsey's heralded drop step, and a full exploration of feinting ("the lie") to veil the attack ("the truth"). Artful language notwithstanding, the vital points offered aren't dim mak or other hokum. There's certainly some overstatement of what pressure points can do, but the emphasis is on hitting where the target is vulnerable as opposed to "one touch knockout" magic finger fantasies. For instance, one places the thumb atop the fist for stability -- similar to the egregious boxing foul of "thumbing." In this context, the thumb also hits and neck and between the ribs. Kicks are intended for knockdowns. Pinions, arm wraps, and holding while hitting reflect martial realities without gloves. Some of the "no gi" grabs are downright nasty, turning soft parts of the body -- neck, armpits, crotch -- into handles. Strikes apply body weight and the opponent's momentum, and occasional lunging attacks, to drive power through the opponent.The book has surprising, though incidental, similarities to some modern self-defense systems, which emphasize leveling strikes to vital points, joint manipulations, throws, and knockdowns intended to injure on impact. To a degree, the Koto Ryu system looks like a blend of atemi waza striking combinations, along with karate-jutsu and jujutsu. Worth studying for a "pocket system" of destructive techniques. The emphasis on grabs, and finger and thumb techniques, would require some degree of hand strengthening and conditioning.While there's useful material, this book requires video supplements, offers few technique depictions beyond the textual descriptions, and doesn't provide a complete system. If you want manuals you can train heavily with, seek out Shahan's "Karate Jutsu" (Motobu Choki) and his "Jiujitsu 1913."Ultimately, it's nice to read original sources without being fluent in Japanese. One can cut out the nonsense, and bypass frauds selling systems -- especially anything even tangentially tied to "Ninjitsu," which is particularly prone to self-serving mythologists.