The story of a book.

[evergrey]

OSU,

I thought I would share a little something with you all today, something awesome and sad and joyful and a little bit amazing that happened to me.

So in Kyokushin, there are some very rare books that are greatly sought-after. One such book, which is very well thought-of, is "The Budo Karate of Mas Oyama" by Cameron Quinn, who was Sosai's translator for a number of years.

This book is unique, because while many Kyokushin books go over technique, this one goes over history, the meaning behind what we do, and some of the internal parts of Kyokushin. It was self-published by Quinn Shihan (long before he became a Shihan) in 1987.

While he is planning to print a new edition some time in the not too distant future, right now the books often go for $400 or more.

My birthday is coming up, and when people asked me what I wanted, well, I had a hard time coming up with much of anything. When you spend most of your time poor, you start to learn to think only in terms of necessities, and it gets harder to think of little things that you just want, instead of big things you need.

Well, I really wanted a copy of that book, but I knew it was just not ever going to be in my price range, and it was too much to ask for someone to buy for my birthday.

I was up at about 2am, as I often am, and I guess I felt like torturing myself by looking up the book online and seeing what it went for.

I went on to amazon.com and I found this.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0812/abestdealever.jpg

!

!!

!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that this was for real. $1.90? You can see what the other two books were priced at.

I don't own a credit card and I never have, so I couldn't buy it myself. Actually, I didn't have enough money to, either. I poked at Sensei, who was also up, but he was just as broke as me! I had one other friend online, and I begged her to buy it ASAP, swearing I would pay her back as soon as I was able.

"Oh, you don't have to pay me back hon, consider it a birthday present!"

So, she bought it, and I was really excited. I hoped it was real, but was also thinking it was more likely that it would be a photograph of the book, or a zerox of the dust jacket or something.

Then earlier this week, this arrived at my front door:

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0812/apackingfail.jpg

Better World Books is an organization that sells used books and uses the profits to fund literacy programs worldwide. As it was, as far as they were concerned, a $1.90 book, they shipped it in this vacuum seal bag. Heh! The corners and the dust jacket of the book were a little battered because of this, but lo and behold, it was real...

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0812/abook.jpg

I gently flipped it open to a few different spots in the book, to find that many passages had been highlighted by the previous owner.

The description said "may have some marking inside the book."

Oh yes, there was some marking, as I discovered when I opened the front of the book.

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0812/asigned.jpg

Whoa, signed by the author! But who was Diogenes? That was a distinctive name. I thought about the book being hand-signed to someone, and highlighted, and I thought, "someone treasured this. How did it get out of their hands? Did it get stolen or something?"

Knowing how precious the book was, I was determined to make certain that it had not, in fact, been stolen. I googled the name combined with Kyokushin, and discovered only one person- Diogenes Perez, a Sensei in Henri-Oh's dojo over on the East coast. Herni-Oh is a pretty big deal. I found the number for the dojo and called.

That's when I discovered the sad truth- Sensei Perez had passed away in February of this year.

It made sense then. Whomever was in charge of his estate donated all of his books to Better World Books, not being aware, I think, of the value of them.

I let the people at his dojo know, and I let an instructor he had taught with know what had happened. I let them know how I had gotten the book, and that I would take very good care of it and always treasure it. I heard back, and they appreciated the fact that a fellow Kyokushin Karateka had it and that it was in good hands.

After that, I turned a couple more pages and found this:

http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0812/sosaisig.jpg

Sosai Mas Oyama himself had also signed the book! I could hardly believe my good fortune.

I told Shihan Quinn about all of this, and he did remember visiting Sensei Perez with Sosai 20 years ago, when they both signed the book.

I hope that some day I'll be able to meet Shihan Quinn in person, and that he will sign it again... and that some day much later on, I will be able to bequeath this book to my favorite student, along with the book's story, and that it will continue on down the line of my lineage, always treasured.

I don't know how I got so lucky, but it feels like providence, like I was meant to find it, somehow. I'm so very grateful.

The next day in class, our head instructor showed me some of his Kyokushin books, and we talked a lot about the history of my lineage.

There is so much more to a martial art than punching and kicking and throwing. It is also a way of life, and it is a legacy. May the stories of Kyokushin live on.

OSU!

[Wastelander]

Very cool, Ev! Thanks for sharing!

[FangPwnsAll7]

That's awesome. We are auctioning off a signed book at our next belt test.

[Patrick]

That is insane! Such a great story. Congrats. I'm so happy for you.

Patrick

[evergrey]

OSU, thank you all. *bows*

[Dobbersky]

OSU, evergrey, you were meant to have that book, its Karma, OSU. Keep it safe my friend and when you do pass the book on they themselves treat it with the same respect, OSU

[sensei8]

OSU, evergrey, you were meant to have that book, its Karma, OSU. Keep it safe my friend and when you do pass the book on they themselves treat it with the same respect, OSU

I wholeheartedly concur!! AWESOME!!

Btw...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

[evergrey]

OSU, thank you both!

[DWx]

Wow that's amazing! Definitely envious!!!

Not only to get a copy but to get one signed by the author and Mas Oyama himself.

Now off to scour Amazon for hidden gems

ps Happy Birthday

[evergrey]

Haha thank you!

This fellow's whole library was up for sale, but most of the books got snapped up pretty quickly. I wish I'd had money, I would have bought the whole thing!