Uechi-ryu blue book

[iwah]

I have a copy of the big 1000+ page Uechi-ryu blue book written by Kanei UEchi and Takamiyagi. My friend finds copies every few years in Japan and sells them in the states to different karate collectors. I told him that it is a shame that these copies are not going to Uechi-ryu senseis considering the importance of the book. The book is is very good condition with the cardboard holder that was issued with it. No tears or spills. Mattson sensei suggest I post this to see if anyone is interested in it. The cost is $2600. Email me at waltyoung@hotmail.com if you are interested in buying this copy.

Walt Young

[iwah]

I now have access to two copies of the book and the price has dropped to $2200 each.

Walt

[Guest]

I have translations of the book that arrive free via email.

no photo's and parts missing and apparently not 100% accurate.

However it makes me ponder why the owner of the rights to the original just do not run a few more printings.

What's the benifit to the style having resellers profit. Why not just print more and let Uechika learn.

Is Uechi just for the rich?

[Bill Glasheen]

Easier said than done, Laird.

You need to talk to Uechi Kanmei. I believe he owns the right to reprint - or not.

Yes, there are various translations floating around these days of various levels of quality, and quite possibly good ones in the works. Eventually someone will seek and get the right to publish these translations. FYI, much of the text is obscure - a mixture of proper Japanese and Hogen (Okinawan dialect). Parts of the book quite frankly exist just to make it bigger than the previous biggest book on Uechi. Volume doesn't necessarily translate to quality. Anyhow, it's not easy to translate well. Eventually reading these translations will be like reading and making sense of Shakespeare.

Stay tuned!

- Bill

[f.Channell]

First edition books are always more valuable.
These books will always bring a premium even if reprinted.

Some people wouldn't blink an eye at spending $30,00 on a Harley even if their not rich.
If you like books passionately $2,000 isn't really a lot.

I've seen this book with a faded cover sell for $700 in the past 2 years on E-bay.

But not for this guy. I prefer to collect the lower end books and wait for them to grow in price. But actually I just like them.

I know one guy with 5 of these books, signed by Master Uechi in the original wrapping. Just waiting for the big sell off.

F.

[Guest]

Well too bad they became collectables I'm sure that was not the intent of the authors when they were published.

That amount of work, it would have been nice if the books ended up being read and studied instead of traded like pork belly's.

[Guest]

Sounds like a good candidate for an ebook. How many pages does it have? Are they color?

[eric235u]

"You need to talk to Uechi Kanmei. I believe he owns the right to reprint - or not. "

How old is the text? After so many years doesn't it become public domain?

[Guest]

30 years I think, and then you can get one, cut all the pages out, and scan each page, front and rear into an acrobat file and then everyone can have a copy. I'm not sure what that will do to the value of the books that people are hording though...

[Dana Sheets]

I believe it is over 600 pages and written entirely in Japanese. Since it was printed outside the united states after 1964 I would guess it is definitely still in copyright.

Here's an FAQ on how to figure out if something is public domain or not.

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/renewals.html

However, works from 1923 or later that were originally published in countries outside the US may still be copyrighted regardless of whether they were printed with proper notice or renewed.

# Life + 25: The Universal Copyright Convention specifies that copyrights should run for the life of the author plus (at least) 25 years (which is sufficient to protect a work during the lifetime of the author and the minority of the author's children). Most UCC members, however, now have longer terms, because they have signed on to the Berne Convention (see below), or have joined organizations like the World Trade Organization that require eventually implementing Berne's longer copyright terms. Here are some countries that may still have the shorter UCC terms:

* Djibouti copyright law specified copyrights of life+25 years for most works, as of 1996 (the latest year for which I can find a law). However, they joined the Berne Convention in 2002, so they may have updated their laws since then, or do so soon.
* Iraq copyright law was extended from life+25 (or 50 years total, whichever is greater) to life+50 in 2004 by the US administrator Paul Bremer after the occupation of Iraq. It is unclear, however, whether these changes will remain in effect after Iraq fully regains self-rule.
* Libya's copyright law of 1968 specifies copyrights of life+25 years, also with a minimum term of 50 years from publication. Libya joined the Berne Convention in 1976, and I do not know whether the terms were extended after that.
* Seychelles copyright law specifies copyrights of life+25 years for most works, as of 1991 (the latest year for which I can find a law).
* Sudan's copyright law also has life+25 year terms in general. It is unclear whether this country has copyright relations with the US, or with international copyright conventions.

# Life + 30: In Iran and Yemen, copyrights tend to last for the lifetime of the author plus 30 years. Iran does not have copyright relations with the US or with international conventions, at last check, and Yemen's relations are unclear.
# Life + 50: The Berne Convention specifies that copyrights should run the life of the author plus (at least) 50 years, rounded up to the end of the calendar year. "Life + 50 years", is therefore the standard copyright length in many countries, including (to the best of my knowledge) Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Benin, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Ghana, Iceland, Indonesia, Iraq (under US occupation rules), Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, (South) Korea, Kuwait, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Malawi, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Qatar, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Montenegro, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia. There are a few possible variants to the usual life+50 rule:

So based on this information on this website, Japan's copyright rule is life plus 50 years. Kanei Uechi died in 1991 so his book will be public domain (unless the copyright is extended) in 2041.

[Bill Glasheen]

I'm not sure this book would be of interest except to a handful of Uechi folk.

There are issues with having one of these, as I well know. To start with, the binding isn't all that great. Mine did something funny the first time I tried to open it more than just a bit. That was back when I got it circa 1978 (for $35).

Believe it or not, they had a hard time selling them all when it came out. It is way too big and too fragile for anything but a library. It is the size of an unabridged dictionary.

The only thing of interest for most would be a handful of beautiful multi-perspective, black-and-white photos of techniques (shoken, hiraken, sokusen, boshiken, etc.) and posed postures. They are the best I've seen anywhere - bar none. The quality, layout, and size are superb. But frankly the photos in George's Uechiryu Karatedo book of Uechi Kanei are the best of him anywhere that I've seen. By the time the Blue Book came out, Uechi Kanei was past his physical prime. Other karateka however stepped in to fill the void, and their poses are the best.

I believe there's one color photo in the beginning of a bunch of Okinawan karate dignitaries in an official suit-and-tie pose. It is what it is...

The other part worth having is the translation of the Japanese/Hogen. And that's more difficult to get through than you think. I have read pieces and parts both of the original Japanese and of several translations. It's tough stuff to get through, and not casual reading by any measure. It's the type of stuff a history major would enjoy - with a grain of salt since much is oral history.

I do on occasion enjoy going to the book to look for the names of various techniques and such in their original Japanese characters. I never would have known what I know now about what these names actually mean without going to the character sources. But that takes some Japanese language training - and a most unusual character dictionary. Martial arts lingo isn't exactly the king's Japanese.

Bill

[Guest]

I could probably scan that in a few months in my spare time (10 pages here, 10 there, etc). Bummer about Japans copyright law though. I guess if an E-Copy suddenly showed up one day on the net and making it's rounds to everyone who ever wanted it but couldn't afford it, the "digitizer" won't be doing much bragging about it, thats for sure. My take is that it would just "be there" with no indication as to who actually did the work.

[eric235u]

The big book sounds interesting but beyond my ability.

I own "The Way of Karate" by Mattson (got it off the net 2 years ago for like $10 used ), are there any other Uechi / Shohei books, or a link to a list of such books anybody could suggest? Thanks.

[Bill Glasheen]

The next two I would get would be George's Uechiryu Karatedo, and Alan Dollar's Secrets of Uechi Ryu Karate. The former has the most comprehenisve pictures of Uechi Kanei doing kata anywhere, and is going to be out of print soon. The latter is one of the most error-free books on the style I've seen. It took me 2 years to find the first typo.

See Uechi-ryu Karate – A short History: Part 1

- Bill

[Glenn]

Allen's books are good, but I'm not sure of their availability now.