Product Description

The world of the samurai - the legendary elite warrior cult of old Japan - has for too long been associated solely with military history and has remained a mystery to the general reader. In this exciting new book, Stephen Turnbull, the world's leading authority on the samurai, goes beyond the battlefield to paint a picture of the samurai as they really were. Familiar topics such as the cult of suicide, ritualised revenge and the lore of the samurai sword are seen in the context of an all-encompassing warrior culture that was expressed through art and poetry as much as through violence. Using themed chapters, the book studies the samurai through their historical development and their relationship to the world around them - relationships that are shown to persist in Japan even today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #300432 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-22
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Military Illustrated, December 2003
'Top 10 Military Books 2003'

About the Author
Stephen Turnbull took his first degree at Cambridge University, and received a PhD from Leeds University for his work on Japanese religious history. He has travelled extensively in Europe and the Far East and also runs a well-used picture library. His work has been recognised by the awarding of the Canon Prize of the British Association for Japanese Studies and a Japan Festival Literary Award. He is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds. Angus McBride is one of the world's most respected historical illustrators, and has contributed to more than 70 Osprey titles in the past three decades. Born in 1931 of Highland parents but orphaned as a child, he was educated at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School. He worked in advertising agencies from 1947, and after national service, emigrated to South Africa. He now lives and works in Cape Town.

Excerpted from Samurai: The World of the Warrior (Special Editions (Military) S.) by Stephen Turnbull, Angus McBride. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter four, ‘The Samurai Way of Death’

Following in death

Junshi (following in death) is the second element in Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s exhortation to preparedness for death in Hagakure, when he insists on a willingness to perform seppuku on the death of one’s master. Again there are early examples to be found in the war chronicles. In Hôgen Monogatari, when Minamoto Yoshitomo ordered the execution of his younger brothers, the boys’ attendants killed themselves immediately afterwards. Four committed seppuku. Two others stabbed each other. Hôgen Monogatari comments:

Though it was their duty to have the same death, though to go forth to the place of battle to be struck down with one’s lord and to cut one’s belly is the usual custom, on the grounds that there had not yet been such an example as this, there was no one who did not praise it.

When Kamakura was captured in 1333, an operation that will be described in detail later in this chapter, we read of many acts of suicide, including this classic account of junshi:

The retainers who were left behind ran out to the middle gate, crying aloud, ‘Our lord has killed himself. Let all loyal men accompany him!’ Then these twenty lit a fire in the mansion, quickly lined up together in the smoke and cut their bellies. And not willing to be outdone, three hundred other warriors cut their bellies and leapt into the consuming flames.

There are examples of junshi being performed even before the daimyo was dead. Shortly before Shimizu Muneharu’s dramatic suicide on the artificial lake of Takamatsu in 1582, one of his retainers invited Muneharu to his room. The loyal retainer explained that he wished to reassure his master about the ease with which seppuku could be performed. He explained that he had in fact already committed suicide, and, pulling aside his robe, showed Muneharu his severed abdomen. Muneharu was touched by the gesture, and acted as his retainer’s second to bring the act to a speedy and less painful conclusion by cutting off the man’s head.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining
This is an excellent telling of the history of the samurai. Unlike other titles from the Osprey series, this book doesn't concentrate on the military aspects of the samurai such as their arms, armour and tactics. Instead, the main purpose of the book is to give you a glimpse of samurai culture. So we have sections on little known aspects of the samurai, such as the japanese navy and pirates. Other topics covered is the importance of ancestry, their use of hara-kiri suicide, the impact of guns on the Japanese psyche and the purpose of castles.

This book also picks out key moments during the last years of the samurai class.
There is for example, a chapter on the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, while there's another on the White Tigers - a group of child revolutionaries who fought for the Shogun during the Meiji restoration. This period of samuari history tends to get ignored for the more exciting wars of the Sengoku Jidai, so it is a pleasure to read about these little known chapters of the Japanese past. My only wish was that they delved a bit deeper into these subjetcs.

Those who are familiar with Dr. Turnbull's books will know that he is an expert on the subject, whose writing style is easy to understand.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the samurai, or Japanese history or culture in general.

subtitle should be the main title
This book was a disappointment to me. I was expecting a detailed account of the samurais' way of life, namely a more profound analysis of their ethics, an allusion to their aesthetics (relating to art, literature, music, etc), their military training, including forms of armed and unarmed combat, their role as administrators after the civil war, etc.
Instead this book is really a military history of Japan, restricted to the period when indeed there were samurais as professional soldiers. Yes, there's a chapter on hara-kiri. But there are also chapters about fortifications (both castles and field fortifications), use of artillery and even Japans crown jewels! On these chapters the reference to samurai is made as secondary characters, people who happen to have a role on the subject, and not as the central subject. And in the chapter about naval activities their role is even smaller, since it's mostly about pirates, who were not, save the few exceptions described, samurais.
It really isn't a bad book, the subject is interesting, the reading is appealing and the illustrations are excellent, but the subtitle should be the main title: it really is a book about the world where the samurai existed and functioned, not the samurai himself.

Interesting Read
I actually bought this book for my father's birthday but I had a good flick through before wrapping it. All I can say is that Stephen Turnbull knows his stuff, then again I'm biased as he was one of my favourite lecturers at university. His passion for his subject can be seen in his writing and this makes his work an engaging read for anyone interested in the subject.