Coffee Table Book of: Taekwondo (Hardcover)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Taekwondo is a large format book of taekwondo, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the uniform and the belt, the guards and pads of sparring, boards for breaking, training halls empty from first light to late at night, the kit being made and cared for, the old gear of the early days, and a few fighters seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: a folded white uniform and its belt, a jacket with a black collar, belts from white through yellow, green, blue and red to black, a red trunk protector with one corner turned back to its blue side, red and blue headguards, forearm guards, foot protectors and light gloves, a kick paddle, a kick shield and a standing bag, a stack of pine boards, a practice board of plastic in two halves, a skipping rope and the eight sided mat seen from above.

The making and care follow cotton woven on an old loom, a roll of heavy cloth for pads, pine boards sawn and stacked to dry, new foam mats stacked in a workshop and aired in the sun, a uniform drying in a summer meadow, a bucket and cloth at the edge of the mats and a straw broom at first light.

Then the places, empty at many hours and in many seasons: halls at first light in frost, at noon with the doors open on a garden, at dusk in autumn and late on snowy and rainy nights, in fog, thunder and moonlight, among blossom, maples and flooded rice fields, beside a still lake, a stone stair through pines, a bamboo grove, a frozen river, a waterfall, a cliff path and a beach, and a few small fighters far off, bowing, standing in line, sparring, kicking and running at dawn.

Short notes run through the book, on training and the customs of the dojang, the uniform, belts, guards and boards and how they are made, and the history of the sport: dojang means the place of the way, a hall set aside for training, in many schools a black collar on the jacket marks the uniform of a black belt, a kick paddle is a double flap of foam that gives a sharp slap when a kick lands well, and many top level bouts are now fought on an eight sided mat rather than a square one.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.