Books! I Need BOOKS!

[GaryH]

Hi everyone,

Ok, Im doing a report on Samurai. And I know there is a huge difference between Americanized "Samurai" and real Samurai class members. I need to know if anyone can recommend books that contain FACTS about Samurai, their class, before and after Meiji. Im also hoping to do a mini-essay or essays on some of the more popular or famous Samurai. (Probably more legendary, to satisfy my teacher's need for that romantic Samurai story ;)

Thank you all,

Gary Hill
Brand new Shinkendo student at the Honbu dojo! :)

[Joseph Svinth]

Stephen Turnbull's books aren't bad, and are easily available.

Turnbull, Stephen. The Lone Samurai and the Martial Arts (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1990); see also the author’s website, http://freespace.virgin.net/stephen.turnbull/publications.htm
-----. Ninja: The True Story of Japan’s Secret Warrior Cult (Poole, Dorset, UK: Firebird Books, 1991)
-----. Samurai Warriors (London: Blandford Press, 1987)
----- and Richard Hook. Samurai Armies 1550-1615 (London: Osprey Publishing, 1979)
----- and Angus McBride. The Mongols (London: Osprey Publishing, 1980)

Some other useful books include:

Bottomley, Ian and Anthony Hopson. Arms & Armour of the Samurai (New York: Crescent Books, 1988)

Bryant, Anthony J. and Angus McBride. Early Samurai 200-1500 AD (London: Osprey Publishing, 1991)

Morris, Ivan I. The Nobility of Failure (New York: New American Library, 1975)

After that, things get trickier, especially if you're in a hurry but need to be reasonably accurate. But as a general rule, trust the academic sources much, much farther than you do the martial arts sources.

For way back, try anything by Karl Friday and:

Richie, Donald. Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai: A Historical Novel (Rutland, VT and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1998)

For mid-term, the legendary stories told the way you always wanted them told (though with much fiction), try:

Sugawara, Makoto. Lives of Master Swordsmen (Tokyo: East Publications, 1988); see also http://www.uoguelph.ca/~iaido/bookreviews.koryuken.htm

Yoshikawa, Eiji. The Musashi Saga, five volumes, translated from the Japanese by Charles S. Terry (New York: Pocket Books, 1989-1990)

For mid-term factual:

Brownlee, John S. Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600-1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jinmu (Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 1997)

Cleary, Thomas. The Japanese Art of War: Understanding the Culture of Strategy (Boston: Shambhala, 1991)

Conroy, Hilary, Sandra T.W. Davis, and Wayne Patterson, editors. Japan in Transition: Thought and Action in the Meiji Era, 1868-1912 (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984); see also http://www.uni-hamburg.de/Wiss/FB/10/JapanS/Artikel/meijipol.html (in German)

Keene, Donald. The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720-1830 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, revised edition, 1969)

Lu, David John, editor. Sources of Japanese History, volume I (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974)

Perrin, Noel. Giving Up the Gun: Japan’s Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879 (Boston: David R. Godine, 1979); a summary appears at http://www.jef.or.jp/en/jti/200001_024.html (The political agenda is debatable, but the basic facts are fine.)

Singer, Kurt. Mirror, Sword, and Jewel: The Geometry of Japanese Life (New York: Kodansha International, 1989)

Villiers, John, editor. Francois Caron and Joost Schouten, A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam, A Facsimile of the 1671 London edition in a contemporary translation from the Dutch by Roger Manley (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1976)

And an article.

Hurst, G. Cameron III. "From Heiho to Bugei: The Emergence of the Martial Arts in Tokugawa Japan," Journal of Asian Martial Arts, 2:4, 1993

[Neil Hawkins]

In addition to the ones Joe mentioned I think the series by George Sansom are very good:

"A History of Japan to 1334", George Sansom, Stanford University Press, 1961.

"A History of Japan 1334 - 1615", George Sansom, Stanford University Press, 1961.

"A History of Japan 1615 - 1867", George Sansom, Stanford University Press, 1961.

Whilst we're at it has anybody read "The maker of Modern Japan - The Life of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu", by A.L. Sadler, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1937? I have the 1978 Tuttle reprint and it reads ok and has lots of info I haven't seen elsewhere. What's the accuracy like?

Regards

Neil

[GaryH]

I owe you many thanks, I have been stuck in this project lately and I finally have some recommendations.

I posted this question over on http://www.swordforum.com would you guys mind if I were to take your posts and copy them to over there? Im sure some people would want to know about all these sources.

Thank you again for your help,

Gary Hill

[Joseph Svinth]

Go for it.

Also check the bibliography sites at "Kronos" at http://ejmas.com ; that's where I go to get bibliographic citations quickly. :)