Where to locate "Pinnacle of Karate" by Robert Tri

[cardinal95]

Hey All!

I reached out to Hanshi Trias last week in an attempt to get my hands on Master Robert Trias's famous "Pinnacle of Karate" book, but have yet to receive a response. I am having a heck of time trying to track this book down. Anyone out there know where I can find it, I am well-aware its an expensive and somewhat "rare" book, but I am determined to track it down!

[wagnerk]

It's going to be very hard to find it, especially since it was self-published...

Anyway, came across this one on Amazon (the US site).

Hope this helps

[cardinal95]

Thanks so much wagnerk! I saw that one too, I reached out to the vendor, I was hoping to find the "final edition" this one is a little earlier. Though it is def my backup plan.

[ps1]

I'm not sure where to find one. I have a buddy that has it. I reached out to him for you.

That said, my opinion is it's not very good. There's alot of "mysticism" type stuff in it that's just plain cultish. Making sure your chi is right with the moon and stuff. I would never drop $1500 for it.

[Wastelander]

The Pinnacle is, essentially, the "bible" of Shuri-Ryu and its off-shoots. I don't have the book, myself, but I have copies of some of the sections, and I know several people who have it. As far as I know, you have to go through Roberta to get copies at a reasonable price, these days, but I don't know how much she charges. She is also notorious for being difficult to get in touch with, so you may have better luck asking someone who has a good relationship with her to call for you.

Personally, my opinion of it is the same as ps1's. That said, if you practice Shuri/Shorei/Shorei-Goju-Ryu, it's pretty much required reading. The vast majority of schools in the Trias lineage follow that book to the letter (depending on the version they have). My old Shuri-Ryu instructor was actually so adamant that the style shouldn't be changed that any time someone asked him to get them a copy of the Pinnacle, he would order it and then go in and edit out the changes made after the last edition that Trias wrote.

[cardinal95]

Thanks a million PS1 for reaching out to your friend! Yeah, thats way too much for any book (said the historian). The book is used as the "authority" on pretty much all questions in our dojo, so though I would find it super useful for what I am doing there, I don't know if its "$1500" worth of useful when I can just borrow my Sensei's when it comes down to it.

[cardinal95]

The Pinnacle is, essentially, the "bible" of Shuri-Ryu and its off-shoots. I don't have the book, myself, but I have copies of some of the sections, and I know several people who have it. As far as I know, you have to go through Roberta to get copies at a reasonable price, these days, but I don't know how much she charges. She is also notorious for being difficult to get in touch with, so you may have better luck asking someone who has a good relationship with her to call for you.

Personally, my opinion of it is the same as ps1's. That said, if you practice Shuri/Shorei/Shorei-Goju-Ryu, it's pretty much required reading. The vast majority of schools in the Trias lineage follow that book to the letter (depending on the version they have). My old Shuri-Ryu instructor was actually so adamant that the style shouldn't be changed that any time someone asked him to get them a copy of the Pinnacle, he would order it and then go in and edit out the changes made after the last edition that Trias wrote.

Same with our dojo its the "bible," which is why I would think it would be useful to have. Though, my Sensei said he'd copy sections, I don't want to bug him every time I am doing research on anything (which is frequent these days).

Its so interesting how different schools handle the "don't make any changes to the original" situation. Thats nuts that your old instructor would actually go edit the Pinnacle. Thats pretty die-hard.

Reaching out to someone who knows Hanshi Trias is a great idea, I didn't think of that. I will definitely mull that option over.

[kensei]

I have never understood this, I once gave my instructor heck for making a few notes in Okizaki's book and pointing out a few errors to Okizaki (Errors at teh printers not Okizaki's errors). My thought is that you dont alter a book. You can add leafs edits to it (insert notes on separate peices of paper) but editing the content is Taboo!

[cardinal95]

I completely agree Kensei, appending a book is one thing but altering impacts the work's authenticity...drives me nuts!