Recommendation for a book on Japanese history

[Eireannach]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good book (in English) on Japanese history?

I've spent the last two years studying at night but now that my free time is my own again (yay!) I'd quite like to learn more about the background to what we do.

Thanks,
Gerard

 

[arnisador]

This is on a fairly specific subject within Japanese history, but one that's quite relevant to martial artists:
Giving Up the Gun: Japan’s Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879 by Noel Perrin

I highly recommend it.

 

[heretic888]

Can anyone recommend a good book (in English) on Japanese history?

Gerard,

Are there any specific subjects or topics that you are interested in learning about??

Laterz.

 

[Kizaru]

For Budo related stuff, Karl Friday's "Legacy of the Sword" is good.

 

[Don Roley]

I like the book by John Varley called "A Cultural History of Japan." I think that is the name and author. You can probably find it in your library system. For a good introduction to the bredth of Japanese history you can hardly find better. Kizaru's reccomondation is a pretty good compliment to it since Varley barely touches on the matter of warfare.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

Thanks all, as well. After reading "Shogun" about 15 years ago, I went on a Japan cultural marathon. To my great surprise, I could not find a single comprehensive history in either the library or local bookstores. This was of course before I had Internet access...

 

[Jonathan Randall]

For Budo related stuff, Karl Friday's "Legacy of the Sword" is good.

From what I've read by him, and referencing him, he seems to be exceptionally knowledgeable.

 

[Eireannach]

Hi,

Thanks all for the replys.

Heretic, I phrased my query as a general one so that I would get a range of replys. I could have asked about something more specific to the individual ryu-ha contained within the Bujinkan but there is probably nothing out there so specific. I also want to get a general view of Japan's history from authoritative source.

Obviously I am coming at this from a budo angle but I'm happy to run with the recommendations so far.

Any further comments welcome. Thanks a lot.

Yours in budo,
Gerard

 

[heretic888]

Gerard,

Good books for discussing how class relations and social institutions evolved throughout pre-modern Japanese history are Pierre Francis Souryi's The World Turned Upside Down: Medieval Japanese Society and Eiko Ikegami's The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan.

Stephen Turnbull's The Lone Samurai and the Martial Arts gives a good discussion about how the conventional weaponry, armor, and tactics of the samurai evolved throughout Japanese history. He also goes into such topics as the wandering "sword saints" (kengo) and the formation of the bushido code.

Good books for a discussion of the history of the Takamatsu-den ryuha are Masaaki Hatsumi's Essence of Ninjutsu: The Nine Traditions and Paul Richardson's Introductory History to the Schools of the Bujinkan.

Hope this helps you in your research.

Laterz.

 

[Don Roley]

Correction.

The book I reccomended was written by George Samson.

Try looking him and Turnbull up at the local library and save your cash for the books you can't borrow from them.

 

[Flashing Dagger]

Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan. Oscar Ratt and Adele Westbrook. Castle Books. 1973.

This book is fantastic. It is very scholarly, historical and sometimes very dry. The author discusses the martial arts of Japan in the cultural and historical context all the way up to the fall of the samurai class. 483 pages.

 

[Don Roley]

Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan. Oscar Ratt and Adele Westbrook. Castle Books. 1973.

This book is fantastic. It is very scholarly, historical and sometimes very dry. The author discusses the martial arts of Japan in the cultural and historical context all the way up to the fall of the samurai class. 483 pages.

I think it is garbage. Take a look at the sources they use. Not one is in Japanese.

There are a lot of things wrong with the book. But the presentation is so slick that people who don't know better can easily be convinced it is correct.

But everyone I know in Japan that does budo and can read Japanese seems to think that it is best used as toilet paper.

 

[TheBattousai]

I enjoy books from Masaaki Hatsumi and The book koga ryu ninjutsu by William Durbin, but those are my opinions.

 

[Kreth]

I enjoy books from Masaaki Hatsumi and The book koga ryu ninjutsu by William Durbin, but those are my opinions.

As I mentioned here, Durbin's connections with ninjutsu are sketchy...

 

[Flashing Dagger]

I think it is garbage. Take a look at the sources they use. Not one is in Japanese.

There are a lot of things wrong with the book. But the presentation is so slick that people who don't know better can easily be convinced it is correct.

But everyone I know in Japan that does budo and can read Japanese seems to think that it is best used as toilet paper.

Do you mean that the information in the book is incorrect or fabricated?

 

[Don Roley]

Do you mean that the information in the book is incorrect or fabricated?

The authors tried to do too much with too little knowledge of the subject matter. They tried to connect some dots, and it looked good to them and to those with little experience, but if they had delved deeper into the subject matter thay would have found things that would have corrected their mistaken conclusions.

They really could not tell good information from bad information. Some of the early works in English have been corrected, but they did not know that. They did not live in Japan, read the language and the only arts I think they studied were aikido. They do not list any arts that they went to see, or get feedback from before writing about them.

In short, it seems like a good attempt at a book report done by honest people that really should have done more work and gotten the know the subject matter.

 

[Flashing Dagger]

That sounds like a more reasonable criticism of a book. Perhaps the problem was in the scope of the work. I once had an Art History class in the arts of Asia and it was like cramming the entire history of several different cultures into 4 months of study.