• Samurai Book
• by S.R. Turnbull
• Hardback book
• Great read

'On the Back' of The Samurai A Miltary History

The legendary samurai of Japan carved out their reputation with their swords, through seven centuries of warfare. This fascinating, scholarly and beautifully illustrated book reveals the true story of a warrior caste which long remained a mystery to the West

The Samurai A Miltary History Description

The legendary samurai of old Japan have always been something of a mystery in the West; their complexity of organisation and richness of tradition have been difficult to penetrate. In this lavishly illustrated book Stephen Turnbull - a serious young historian - describes the evolution of the samurai from heroes of mythology to a body of men who provided military service to landowners, their denegration to the status of paid mercenaries and, finally, to their disappearance as a class in the mid-nineteenth century.
The author tells the story of the samurai against the background of Japan's social and political history. The civil wars of the twelfth century provided the impetus for their emergence as a faction with a special identity; the attempted Mongol invasions united the samurai against the common foe; the Onin War of 1467 and the civil wars of the fourteenth century led to the regrouping of the samurai clans. The development of armour and weaponry in the invasion of Korea in 1592 and the last great battles of Sekigahara in 1600 and the siege of Osaka Castle in 1615 caused significant changes not only in the samurai's military tactics but in their social status.

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