In Japanese history, a graphic novel version of the most dramatic example of bushido - the samurai code.
In the eighteenth century, forty-seven samurai avenged the death of their master in a plot that would take over two years to complete. After succeeding in their mission, the masterless...
The idea of the sword-wielding samurai, beholden to a strict ethical code and trained in deadly martial arts, dominates popular conceptions of the samurai. As early as the late seventeenth century, they were heavily featured in literature, art, theatre, and even comedy, from The Tale of the...
A History of the Samurai tells the complete story of Japan's legendary warrior class from beginning to end - an epic tale of intrigue, bloodshed and bravery that is central to an understanding of the Japanese character and of Japanese history. It describes in detail the core Samurai philosophy...
In Legends of the Samurai, Hiroaki Sato confronts both the history and the legend of the samurai, untangling the two to present an authentic picture of these legendary warriors. Through his masterful translations of original samurai tales, laws, dicta, reports, and arguments accompanied by...
A translation of a unique 17th-century compendium of samurai heraldry annotated with the symbolism and stories behind the banners. O-umajirushi is the earliest surviving colour compendium of Japanese crests and heraldry. At the time, woodblock printing was just starting to allow for widespread...
Alternate attendance (sankin kotai) was one of the central institutions of Edo-period (1603–1868) Japan and one of the most unusual examples of a system of enforced elite mobility in world history. It required the daimyo to divide their time between their domains and the city of Edo, where they...
Japan has often been thought of as a closed country, but before the country was closed in 1635 many travellers from the West were able to experience its unique traditions and culture. Their accounts speak of legends of powerful dragons and devils, tales of the revered emperor and the protocol...
The former residence of the Nomura family (野村家) is located in Nagamachi, the bukeyashiki or samurai quarter of Kanazawa, a quiet district characterised by its long straight mud-daub walls topped with traditional wooden slats called kobaita (小羽 板) and covered with straw mats (こも komo) in winter...
Part Samurai history, part martial arts guide, this is THE book for anyone interested in Japan's fabled Samurai culture.
Author Alexander Bennett is the ultimate insider, holding multiple black belts in Kendo and Naginata as well as a Ph.D. in Japanese literature and history. In this book, he...
Japan's samurai were professional soldiers, but they could also be cultivated artists, writers and philosophers. "Samurai" means "he who serves," and these fierce warriors acted in the service of powerful feudal lords known as daimyo ("great name"). Among the most important daimyo families were...
SumiKen on the App Store
SumiKen is an endless samurai game drawn in Japanese sumi-e painting style.
This game features fast paced samurai slashing action set in the beautiful landscape of Japan.
The game mechanic is an easy to learn, but difficult to master swipe system which require precise...
Hello dear friends.
Many of us noticed the Hagakure after Yukio Mishima's works. Many other noticed that book after the American movie "Ghost Dog". Other maybe already knew its importance or heard about this text through the sphere of Martial Arts.
The reason of this topic is to declare the...
Master swordsman and accomplished painter
Master swordsman and painter of the Edo period (1600-1868), also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke, Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara no Genshin (新免武蔵守藤原玄信), and under his artistic name Niten.
Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵 1584-1645), born in either...
Kojima Iken (児島惟謙, 1837-1908), also known as Kojima Korekata (児島惟謙), was born in the Uwajima Domain (宇和島藩 Uwajima-han), Iyo Province (伊予国 iyo-no-kuni, modern-day Ehime Prefecture), into a family of samurai of the Uwajima clan. Separated from his biological mother at an early age, it is said that...
The Last True Samurai and True Last Samurai
Born in Kagoshima in the Satsuma Domain (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture), Saigō Takamori (西郷隆盛, 1828-1877) was one of the pro-imperial samurai supporting the Meiji Restoration. He has often been called the “last true samurai”.
Saigō was the eldest...
Toshirō Mifune and Richard Chamberlain in "Shōgun" (1980)
"Shōgun" is the first novel in James Clavell’s Asian Saga. It is set in feudal Japan somewhere around the year 1600 and gives a highly fictionalised account of the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu to the shogunate, seen through the eyes of an...
I have wanted to know this for a while now, but I have not been able to find any/much information about the subject.
On the one hand, while there is plenty of information on samurai in Japan, I can hardly find any info on the horses they rode or even horse breeds in Japan. I'm not specifically...
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