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Samurai: An Illustrated History
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$34.95
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$23.07
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Manufacturer: Charles E Tuttle Co
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780804832878
ISBN: 0804832870
Label: Charles E Tuttle Co
Manufacturer: Charles E Tuttle Co
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 2002-05-15
Publisher: Charles E Tuttle Co
Studio: Charles E Tuttle Co
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Editorial Reviews:
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Samurai: An Illustrated History brings the violent, tumultuous, and, at the same time, elegant world of the medieval Japanese samurai to life. With a general introduction that examines the origins of the samurai and their rise to power, Samurai presents a chronological coverage of samurai history detailing the main battles, personnel, and general themes. Additional chapters are studies of samurai armor and weaponry, fortifications, and the changes in strategy and armor upon the introduction of firearms and cannon. All chapters are illustrated by photographs of battle re-enactments meticulously conducted by the enthusiastic historical re-enactment societies of Japan, and by line drawings of fortifications and armor. Samurai vividly details the long bloody era of the samurai, when sons killed their fathers, brothers attacked their brothers, wives betrayed their husbands and hosts their guests, and the forces of the samurai rulers destroyed those of the emperors and the monasteries. The samurai fought for property, lands, and money, and only rarely for honor--Samurai tells that compelling story with vigor.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Readable overview of the samurai throughout history.
Comment: Following some points made by Marc Winter's review, whereas I agree with some of what was said, I disagree on at least three things.
Obviously the recoloured photos that we do have represent only a very narrow slice of time - that time of the absolute dying embers of the Samurai - the thin slice between the relatively late invention of photography and the class' demise in the reformation. However, I too would have liked to have seen more included, though their worth should not be overvalued. There are books that specialise in these posed samurai photos, for what its worth.
This book visually and accurately shows all the historical developments of the armour over time - obviously of which there are no extant photos. If you recheck the book, it *does* have many colour photos, line drawings and ukiyo-e(musha-e) reproductions of historical armour and more.
It's an unfounded exaggeration to say this is poor scholarship, it is not an academic text admittedly (and often that's a very good thing), but reenactment photos or not, is an accurate and in depth overview of samurai history.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great illustrations
Comment: Best illustrated english text on Japan's Samurai. Covers most topics giving enough general info to satisfy the casual student of this genre. Amazon has the BEST price on this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Japanese Samurai historians
Comment: The pictures and documentation on the Samurai in ths book are great. It is a gerat coffee table book and is really a great find.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buy it for the pictures
Comment: I agree with Marc Winter's review. I had hoped that the book would contain old photographs of samurai with artificial coloring, but instead, the book was filled with modern day photographs. Nonetheless, I enjoyed looking through the book. The pictures make good reference material for conceptual, illustrative artwork, which is why I bought the book in the first place. It could have used more pictures to make up for its lack of authenticity, but I was happy with the numerous photographs provided.
The written-text is an interesting read as well. It discusses many different aspects of samurai, such as their overall history, military strategies, fashion trends of certain periods, weaponry, how to put on armor, etc. The book contains a good number of fun facts as well. It's not a heavy read, but it's very detailed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Poor scholarship without historical pictures
Comment: This is a coffes table book at its best: nice format, high quality paper and illustrations, thus the two stars.
The contents though are mainly photos from a Japanese festival where modern day Japanese history buffs wear reproductions of uniforms. There are no historic armors, the historic swords are only depicted in the sheaths, and the old photo of the warrior on the front is the only historic photo.
So you get a fair idea about today's reception of Samurai period Japan among Japan's clerks, but there is more to a warrior than the clothes - the look in their eyes for instance. Imagine a history of the Civil War with no pictures from the 1860, but rather only photos taken at the re-enactment that takes place in Gettysburg every once in a while.
The text written around the pictures is not very high standard scholarship, but rather "history lessons for foreigners", which really is not so surprising, since the author is a surgeon. Not baldy written, but sort of what you get from the introductory section of a well-written travel guide (more detailled though).
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