Samurai
The Samurai - Jonathan Clements
From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world.
The Samurai Detectives - Shotaro Ikenami
It has been half a year since Akiyama Daijiro became a samurai; half a year since he left his father Kohei – once the most skilled swordsman in the land – to set up his own blade school by the cool of the river. Ever since, amid the swaying bamboo groves, he waits patiently for his first disciple. But his serenity is soon disrupted by the visit of a mysterious samurai with an unhonourable offer: in exchange for a vast sum of gold, he must attack and injure the daughter of the Shogun’s most senior counsellor. Troubled by the proposal, Daijiro, alongside his father and Mifuyu, a female warrior without match, soon set out into the underworld of Edo-era Japan to uncover the conspiracy, before quickly finding themselves embroiled in a series of increasingly perilous adventures...
The Tale of the Heike - Royall Tyler
First assembled from scattered oral poems in the early fourteenth century, The Tale of the Heike is Japan's Iliad - a grand-scale depiction of the wars between the Heike and Genji clans. Legendary for its magnificent and vivid set battle scenes, it is also a work filled with intimate human dramas and emotions, contemplating Buddhist themes of suffering and separation, as well as universal insights into love, loss and loyalty.
The Samurai - Shusaku Endo
In 17th-century Japan, a diplomatic mission sets sail for the West. Among those facing the combined perils of the sea and foreign courts are ambitious Spanish missionary Pedro Velasco, and Hasekura Rokuemon, a disregarded samurai determined to recover his family's standing. They travel to Mexico City, Rome and back - but Japan's new rulers are persecuting Christians, and if the men survive the journey, they may not survive their homecoming. This true story of courage and endurance is told with Endo's signature power and simplicity.
The Lone Samurai - William Scott Wilson
Born in 1584, Miyamoto Musashi was the legendary samurai known throughout the world as a master swordsman, spiritual seeker, and author of the classic book on strategy, The Book of Five Rings. Over 350 years after his death, Musashi and his legacy still fascinate readers worldwide, inspiring artists, authors, and filmmakers. In The Lone Samurai, respected translator and expert on samurai culture William Scott Wilson presents both a vivid account of a fascinating period in feudal Japan and a portrait of the courageous, iconoclastic samurai who wrestled with philosophical and spiritual ideas that are as relevant today as they were in his time.