Few books have continued their bestselling status centuries after their author's death. Like other classics, such as the Gospels of Jesus, and Lao Tze's Tao Te Chung, there is much discussion of who actually wrote them and how. What is important is how such books are used. Because only extremely useful books continue in demand at bookstores, especially over generations. This book is entitled A Samurai Master Class, as two additional classics, "The Book of Five Rings" and "Bushido, the Soul of Japan" have been included. No study of this period would be complete without understanding the strategies, tactics, and ethics of the Samurai. All of us have our journey to follow. In this, the Art of War can become the Way of Peace. This is presented as the old Japanese proverb told, "There are many paths up the mountain." In that spirit, this book is humbly presented for your use. Scroll Up and Get Your Copy Today!
Become a Better Martial Artist by Applying Lessons from the World's Greatest Military Strategists from Sun Tzu to Von Clausewitz Lessons in the Art of War investigates the theories and philosophies of the most prominent military thinkers in Asia and Europe and examines the combat roots of a variety of fighting styles from traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean martial arts to the fighting arts of the ancient Greeks and modern Israelis. It also demonstrates how the martial arts, whether Asian or Western in origin, were historically about brutal fighting, often to the death, and how ancient attitudes and beliefs can be adapted for success in today's MMA steel cage, judo or karate tournament as they were in ancient armies. Including an introduction to Asian and Western military thought, chapters include: The Nature and Conduct of Combat What is Combat? Preparing for Battle Elements of Tactics and Strategy Imposing Your Will Destroying the Enemy Force Strength of the Defensive Position Failure Moral Quality of Courage Securing Victory
Samurai tells the story of the courageous and highly disciplined fighting men of this time, showing how they evolved from the primitive fighters of the seventh century into an invincible military caste with a fearsome reputation. In the early seventh century, the samurai rose to prominence during the struggles between the emperor and the military leaders (shogun). They took part in the invasion of Korea, as well as helping to keep Japan free from foreign influence. From the Heian period through to the Onin wars, the history of the samurai is replete with tales of heroism and bloodshed. Although the samurai is most famous for his use of the sword, he also used a wide variety of other weapons, such as the crossbow, the dagger and the spear. Samurai armour and costume were constantly evolving, and by the twelfth century most samurai were wearing the box-like yoroi armour. Samurai examines samurai fighting tactics, as well as acts such as ritual suicide (hari-kiri) and the taking of enemy heads as trophies.
This invaluable martial arts philosophy handbook presents ancient wisdom for contemporary readers. Secrete Tactics contains brilliant new interpretations of fundamental works of strategy and martial arts tactics by Miyamoto Musashi, Gichin Funakoshi, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, and various martial arts tomes. It distills the important teachings on leadership, character and values found in those books. Readers will unlock the secrets of their art and of themselves. These and a dozen other essays on strategy, combat tactics, psychology, leadership, good character, and the exercise of power, make Secret Tactics an indispensable resource for students of Asian culture, martial artists, and corporate executives.
As the "soul of the samurai," the sword is famously both the symbol and instrument of Japanese military prowess. Less known, at least in the west, is its role as a fashion accessory or status symbol. More than the weapon itself, it was the sword's metal fittings--from the hand guard to the small decorative plates on the hilt--that reflected the complexities of samurai life. Some fittings were meant to convey the honor and self-control expected of a samurai, while other, more flamboyant fittings reflected the samurai's leisure-time persona as "man about town." Later, when the wearing of swords spread beyond the samurai class, both the decorative function of the fittings and the variety of their designs increased, leading to some of the most accomplished metalwork ever created. Now in paperback for the first time, Lethal Elegance presents 150 of these remarkable sword fittings, and is one of the few books to focus on their styles and techniques. It discusses the visual effects achieved with different alloys, the evolution of fittings following changes in warfare, symbolism and standards for connoisseurship. Though these objects were created for violent ends, their variety and beauty also reveal them as wonders of self-expression.
This book demonstrates that during Japan’s early modern Edo period (1603–1868) an ethical code existed among the merchant class comparable to that of the well-known Bushido. There is compelling evidence that contemporary merchants, who were widely and openly despised as immoral by the samurai, in fact acted in highly ethical ways in accordance with a well-articulated moral code. Japanese society was strictly stratified into four distinct and formally recognized classes: warrior, farmer, craftsman and merchant. From the warriors’ perspective, the merchants, at the base of the social order, had no virtue, and existed only to skim profits as middlemen between producers and consumers. But were these accusations correct? Were the merchants really unethical beings who engaged in unfair business practices? There is ample evidence that negates the ubiquitous slanders of the warrior class and suggests that merchants – no less than the warriors – possessed and acted in accordance with a well-developed ethical code, a spirit that may be called shonindo or “The Way of the Merchant.” This book examines whether a comparison of shonindo, depicting the ethical point of view of the merchant class, and Bushido, embodying that of the warrior class, reveals that shonindo may have in fact surpassed Bushido in some aspects. Comparing contemporarily published historical documents concerning both shonindo and Bushido, as well as Inazo Nitobe’s classic work Bushido: The Soul of Japan, published in 1900, the author examines how Bushido surpassed shonindo in that warriors were willing to die for their strict ethical code. Shonindo, however, may have surpassed Bushido in that merchants were liberal, willing to expand and extend application of their ethical beliefs into all aspects of everyday life for the overall benefit of society. This ethical code is compared with that of the conservative Bushido, which demonstrably proved not up to the task for the modernization and improved well-being of Japan. Ichiro Horide is professor emeritus of Reitaku University. Edward Yagi (Reitaku University) and Stanley J. Ziobro II (Trident Technical College) collaborated in the translation of the original Japanese manuscript into English.
The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Gail Tsukiyama's The Samurai's Garden uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for this extraordinary story. A 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight. Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world, and Stephen is a noble student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soulmate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.
This book explores how issues of ethics in war and warfare have been treated by major ethical traditions of Asia. It opens a discussion about whether there are universal standards in the ideologies of warfare between the major religious traditions of the world. While the chapters are written by specialists in Asian cultures, some of the conceptual apparatus is drawn from the scholarly discourse on just war, developed in the study of the ethical tradition of Christianity. Taking a comparative approach, the book looks at six different Asian religious, philosophical and political traditions: Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, China and Japan; and is organized according to geography. This innovative approach opens a new field of research on war and ideology, and extends the debate on modern warfare, universalism and human rights.
