Although Plum, almost exclusively, represents books and videos on traditional Chinese martial arts, there are times when we bow or nod to important works from among our cousins; in this case, it is GM James Mitose’s classic treatise on Self-Defense techniques and theory, What Is Self Defense, that strongly influenced the development of Kenpo (often referred to as “Kenpo Karate,” “Chinese Karate” or, on the book, “Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu”).
This book is not historical fluff, but an important document of methods and techniques that built the self-defense movement in the latter part of the 20th century. There is also a decided Buddhist bent to his writings, with many admonitions to only use these techniques when absolutely necessary. This book has been difficult to find for a long while, and we are happy to have some copies available at Plumpub.