Member Reviews
Interesting breakdown in Samurai warfare including how the samurai fought and honed their warrior skills. I would highly recommend this book to historians, martial artists, and marts arts buffs.
This book was brilliant, it contained everything you could ever need to know about samurai and how they fight. It was amazing as I learnt so much while reading it. The pictures and diagrams were brilliant and so easy to understand. I especially lovedthe step by step guides to the motions used with different weapons. I have to admit I might of done them with my mop. I loved the step bystep guide to the armour parts and how they put them on , it's very interesting. I found it fascinating learning about the different type of lacered paper hats. This book was definitely very well researched and the author obviously knows so much . It was excellent learning about how the weapons evolve through time. The changes in battle strategies with useful maps was great. The most fascinating subject was how the building of castles evolved making many impenetrable. I really do recommend this book to those who like learning about samurai, fighting and the changing history of warfare in Japan.
So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating such a wonderful history book packed so full with information and pictures.
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Samurai Weapons and Fighting Techniques is a compendium of weaponry, armor, and battlegrounds of the samurai. Details of military leaders, positions for weapon usage, artillery, historical drawings, and photos of former battlegrounds are all included. There is a lot of interesting information on little-known subjects such as paper armor as well as illustrations for replication of the usage of their weaponry. This would be a great addition to a reference collection.
"Samurai Weapons and Fighting Techniques" by Dr. Thomas D. Conlan (Professor of East Asian Studies & History at Princeton University) is a detailed, fully illustrated, and well researched description of the military history surrounding the Samurai in Japan from around the 12th Century until around the 19th Century CE. At 224 pages and over 300 illustrations covering 8 centuries, this book contains a lot of information.
This is an academic history text complete with a useful glossary and a comprehensive reference section with primary and secondary sources in Japanese as well as sources in English. Although the illustrations and prose go a long way to make the content accessible to the average person, the intended reader would be one already familiar with and very interested in Japanese military history from this time period.
The author thoughtfully analyzes the various weapons used, their roles, and effectiveness based on historical military records. (The number of detailed military records (and artwork) that have survived over 700 years is amazing!) As the author points out, it is commonly assumed that the sword is the most significant symbol of the samurai. Reading this book, we learn that although important, the sword is more of a complement to other weapons in historical Japanese warfare. For example, I was surprised to learn that military documents show that the humble pike caused more injuries than swords after the year 1500. I was also impressed to learn that there were periods of time where the historical records suggest that rifling gun bores and staggered use of guns in ranks were both common in Japan before Europe.
For the casual reader who just wants exposure to "Samurai Stuff", I might suggest a historical novel. However, I absolutely recommend this book to enthusiasts of Japanese military history.
(NetGalley exclusive comment: I think that for most readers that there will be a direct relationship between rating of the book and interest in Japanese military history. I am interested in many aspects of Japanese history, and if I were more of an enthusiast in Japanese military history, I would certainly give this book 5 stars.)