The Way of Mugai Ryu Iaido: The Teachings of Sensei Motoyama Shodo

I’m currently writing a fiction novel that required some knowledge beyond my abilities and this book didn’t disappoint! So many details on and ways of the sword are revealed!

I have been training in Mugai Ryu for over 20 years. So this book, I will say, is the best book printed in english on the subject of the style.That being said, if you are familiar with the history of the style and looking for more information to broaden your understanding of its history and philosophy this is not the book for you. Many of the anecdotes and stories the author puts forth are the same teachings, I have gotten from my many teachers in Japan and here in the states. I was hoping for some enlightening tidbits that his teacher would have shared that would broaden my knowledge of the history and philosophy of Mugai Ryu as it has evolved over the hundreds of years, or even his teacher's views on the style and various kata, but alas no.If you have no experience, just beginning to learn the style or one of the many various ryuha that have sprung from it in recent years. This is a good book. It gives some history of the style but mostly acts as a training reference manual. So for those you who are training in the newer variant schools of Mugai Ryu you can see where your kata developed from, as many of the newer schools were created after the passing of Nakagawa Soke.I highly recommend this book for all levels of practitioners for one important reason. Nakagawa Soke.The author has published the images from Nakagawa Soke's book which demonstrates the 20 basic kata of the style. This manual was a limited run originally published in 1949, and republished again in 1976. There are very few copies available of either edition left and they cost a lot of money! So this book is a good investment just for that reason alone.

The content of this book is limited, and it does not serve as a particularly good learning guide, only a reference for someone first learning the sets with an instructor to fill in many details.