I received a copy of this a few days ago, and will write a full review eventually. But some basic stuff.
The book is 143 pages, wire-ring binding, with good quality paper. The font looks to be about 10 point. Lots of B&W photos and calligraphy, some by Funakoshi.
Available from International Ryukyu Karate Research Society, PO Box 420, Virginia, Brisbane, 4014 Australia. IRKRS member price: US $19.95. Non-members, $21.95. Prices include shipping by airmail, which if memory serves runs about US $6-8, so the price isn't as steep as it sounds.
To order, send name, address, credit card (VISA/MC) details (name as on card, card type, number & expiration date) to PO Box 420, Virginia 4014, AUSTRALIA or by e-mail, bujin@bigpond.com . No checks accepted.
And, as you're ordering direct from the author, probably inscriptions and such are easily requested.
Structure:
The book consists of articles by and about Gichin Funakoshi.
-- Funakoshi, Okinawa no bugi, recollecting the words of Azato Ankoh (published in Japan in 1914)
-- Sasaki G., Secret Fighting Techniques (1921 newspaper article introducing karate to the mainland of Japan)
-- Funakoshi, Introducing Karate to the Mainland (Feb 1934)
-- Funakoshi, Azato Ankoh, A Short Story about My Teacher (1934)
-- Funakoshi, Stillness & Action (1934)
-- Karatedo (unknown publication date)
-- McCarthy, P. Extract from Bubishi that Funakoshi used in three of his publications: 1922, 1925 & 1935.
-- Itosu, Ten Articles (1908)
-- Matsumura, Seven Virtues of 'Bu' (1882)
-- Noble, G. "Master Funakoshi's karate" (mid-1980s, Fighting Arts International; reprinted Dragon Times 1990s)
-- Funakoshi, "Shoto's Twenty Precepts"
-- Chronology of Funakoshi's career
-- Postscript, Pat Zalewski
-- Index
Impressions
Proofreading and such is good, and there are only a couple typos.
From a content standpoint, if you have been collecting material for years, then probably you have seen most of what is here. But if you haven't, well, then this gives you easy access to lots of previously hard-to-get articles.
For myself, I hadn't seen the 1921 newspaper article before, and the way it was written has made me wonder if the idea of introducing karate to Japan in the early 1920s wasn't the furor over Jack Dempsey and his million-dollar gates. (You could still buy a heavy cruiser or a submarine for a million bucks back then.) Karate as a uniquely Japanese form of boxing, as it were. Kind of a full circle, if this is true.
A worthwhile addition to the library.