Samurai Sourcebook

by Stephen Turnbull

Brave, invincible warriors, fighting sword in hand against overwhelming odds. Those were the Samurai. In this the most comprehensive, enthralling look at their history, personalities, strategies, costume, and battles you'll find every detail of their armor and weaponry, as well as the Samurai army's development, its organization, and the fighters' feudal obligation. Case studies focus in on the most important invasions and combat situation, as well as their religious traditions. A full range of maps chart wartime changes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Japan, Japanese History, Research, Philosophy, Military History

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Stephen Richard Turnbull is British a historian specializing in eastern military history, especially the samurai of Japan. His books are mainly on Japanese and Mongolian subjects. He attended Cambridge University where he gained his first degree. He currently holds an MA in Theology, MA in Military History and a PhD from the University of Leeds where he is currently a lecturer in Far Eastern Religions. He has also written a number of books on other medieval topics. He is semi-retired but still holds the post of Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at Akita International University in Japan.

Reviews

[S. Kallahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of useful detail, but the research lens is a bit dated.

[Neosisani · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tries to cover number of topics related to samurai and fails at them all. Topics themselves are properly chosen, but depth at which all topics are addressed is simply too shallow, even as a totally introductory material.

Considering that this book has only 150 pages, out of which about a third is pictures, I can only say this is very unfinished book which feels like someone has written a paragraph for each point from a very short lecture on a samurai.

Finally writer tries to be humorous by constantly using some words and phrases (eg. lewd and sordid persons). This is (I assume) used to make me feel more like I'm in early Edo period, but somehow it didn't bring that feeling up.

If you're very new to all this samurai stuff you might want to take this book as your first read. If you have, however, already read several essays, books or osprey publishings on topic of samurai, just gently avoid this book.

[AskHistorians]

As the title says, a sourcebook, not an in-depth guide. It covers everything, from arms and armour of the samurai, to their strategies, tactics, a couple famous battles and conflicts, as well as a few maps that, whilst not the best, are understandable. If you're looking for an in-depth analysis, this isn't the best book, as it really only shines in terms of it's accurate references. Still a good read, though.