Bokuden Ryu Jujutsu: A Record of Intensive Lessons in Jujutsu with Additional Secret Teachings on Resuscitation by Otsuka Nobuyoshi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Translator Amazon Page

This is a manual, written in 1916, of the Bokuden Ryu school of Jujutsu. Tsukahara Bokuden was a sixteenth century samurai and is one of the most famous of Japan’s swordsmen, having been instructor to a Shogun and a Provincial Governor, and the school of Jujutsu described in this book was said to have been founded by him.

The manual mostly consists of textual and line drawn descriptions of thirty techniques of the system, mostly throws and takedowns. Each page has an English translation appended to the original manual’s text and drawings. Most techniques are explained over two or three pages (i.e. two or three drawings.) The book also includes three resuscitation techniques and a few odds and ends. There is also a nice set of atemi maps – i.e. drawings showing various vulnerable spots on the body, and a brief biography (a few pages) of Tsukahara Bokuden.

The translator points out errors in the original and corrects them in the translation (e.g. there are a couple of techniques in which attacker and defender labels are swapped.)

If you’re interested in Japanese martial arts and the evolution of Jujutsu, I’d recommend this manual. There is not a great deal of fine detail to be gleaned, but the concise descriptions do offer insights into what is unique and what is common to the system.

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