Jujutsu & Judo in the West: Uke Becomes Tori Paperback – Import, 13 April 2018

It is common in anthologies that the quality of the single essays is staggering, here however the quality fluctuates rather widely.This book contains some really great reads:- "Origins of the British Judo Association, the EJU and IJF" by Richard Bowen(really informative, well researched, full of details and written with wits and humour)- "Sport, Industrialism and the Japanese Gentle Way" by Geoffrey Wingard(also really informative, well researched, full of details)- "Jujutsu's Image in Spain's Wrestling Shows" by Carlos Gutiérrez and Julian Espartero(a gorgeous work about the history of Jujutsu, Judo and Wrestlibgn in Spain, very informative, well researched, honest and fascinating - a must-read for those interested in the history of Jujutsu/Judo)There are also several essays about the Budokwai: these are however very staggering in quality of research, details and structure and in many points just repetitive. A good editor would have read and compared them, cutting half of them out of this anthology.The chapters about Haragatame and Kataguruma are rather superficial and pointless. Neither do they provide any usefuly or interesting information nor do they fit at all into this anthology about the history and development of Judo & Jujutsu. Mostly they felt like poorly chosen gap fillers.For those highly interested in the history and development of Judo and Jujutsu in Europe, this book contains some good essays and can be recommended.However great parts of this book disappointed me.