Samurai: A History

by John Man

Overview

The definitive history of the Samurai, by acclaimed author of Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior

“One could ask for no better storyteller or analyst than John Man.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography 

The inspiration for the Jedi knights of Star Wars and the films of Akira Kurosawa, the legendary Japanese samurai have captured modern imaginations. Yet with these elite warriors who were bound by a code of honor called Bushido—the Way of the Warrior—the reality behind the myth proves more fascinating than any fiction. In Samurai, celebrated author John Man provides a unique and captivating look at their true history, told through the life of one man: Saigo Takamori, known to many as "the last samurai." In 1877 Takamori led a rebel army of samurai in a heroic "last stand" against the Imperial Japanese Army, who sought to end the "way of the sword" in favor of firearms and modern warfare. Man's thrilling narrative brings to life the hidden world of the samurai as never before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062202673
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/18/2014
Series:	P.S.
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

John Man is the author of Attila, Genghis Khan, The Great Wall, Gobi: Tracking the Desert, Ninja, Samurai, and other works. Educated at Oxford and the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, he was awarded Mongolia’s Friendship Medal in 2007.

Table of Contents

List of Maps ix

Preface xi

A Note on Transliteration and Dating xiii

Prologue: Out of the Volcano 1

1 The Way of the Warrior: Beginnings 9

2 A Young Life Transformed 26

3 The Way of the Warrior: A Short History of Swords 54

4 The Coming of the Americans 66

5 The Way of the Warrior: Cutting the Belly 76

6 New World, New Life 88

7 The Way of the Warrior: Bushido 106

8 A Death in Kinko Bay 118

9 Exile, and a New Life 127

10 A Brief Taste of Power 138

11 The Prisoner 144

12 Into the Maelstrom 166

13 The Unhappy Revolutionary 190

14 The Accidental Rebel 208

15 Failure at Kumamoto 222

16 Retreat 248

17 The Long Road to Death 262

18 Saigo's Last Stand 271

19 Transfiguration 285

Acknowledgments 299

Bibliography 301

Photo Credits 305

Index 309

Editorial Reviews

11/04/2013
British historian Man (Ninja) adds to his solid series of general-audience books on Far East military subjects with this analysis of Japan’s military nobility. Taking an unusual perspective, he focuses on Saigo Takamori, whose iconic status as a 19th-century embodiment of the samurai ideal gave him “semidivinity... even before his death.” Man perceptively describes “samurai” as a sense of being: a way of the warrior built around the cult of the sword; seppuku, ritual suicide, as the ultimate proof of loyalty; and bushido, “freedom that is bound to service,” as the highest ideal. Renewing their identity to fit new circumstances, the samurai became “the very essence of Japanese society.” Saigo’s lord, Shuzami Nariakara, saw him as honest and trustworthy, fearing neither authority nor evil, and “the kind of man who cannot be manipulated.” Saigo became a key figure in the Meiji Restoration, but his conviction that “the duty of government is to serve the people” led him to reject the new Japan’s “politicians, bureaucrats, and capitalists.” Seeking the life of a “Confucian gentleman-scholar,” he resigned his offices. Drawn unwillingly into leading a doomed rebellion, he committed seppuku; in death he became “a national treasure” whose life and death embodied “the self-destructive courage, the nobility of failure, that was so much a part of the Japanese character.” (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

With a relaxed and honest prose style [Man] slashes through the thicket of 19th-century Japanese politics with the keenness of a samurai’s tempered steel blade.” — The Daily Express

“A well-written piece of history with an easy storyteller’s rhythm and plenty of intrigue. Readers will quickly realize that the author is well-versed in Far Eastern history, but he also accommodates new discoveries and insights. … Smooth, sophisticated history writing.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Exciting, surprising, and moving. ... A well-written saga” — Booklist

“An engaging look at the final days of a military elite.” — Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

Exciting, surprising, and moving. ... A well-written saga

Booklist

With a relaxed and honest prose style [Man] slashes through the thicket of 19th-century Japanese politics with the keenness of a samurai’s tempered steel blade.

The Daily Express

An engaging look at the final days of a military elite.

Shelf Awareness

Exciting, surprising, and moving. ... A well-written saga

Booklist

2014-01-05
Man, a crack biographer of Asian historical figures (Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warriors, 2012, etc.), tenders a survey of the samurai, the equivalent of Japan's feudal knights. This is a well-written piece of history with an easy storyteller's rhythm and plenty of intrigue. Readers will quickly realize that the author, who previously worked for Reuters and Time-Life Books, is well-versed in Far Eastern history, but he also accommodates new discoveries and insights. To understand the samurai, it is critical to understand the nature of the Japanese political landscape, "a patchwork of sixty provinces and six hundred estates, all scrapping with one another." The lords found protection in landowning warriors—samurai—who were gifted land by the lord and gathered wartime booty. There also arose a strict code of conduct within the samurais' elite community. They were generous, stoic, intelligent, and masters at swordplay and spiritual matters; they also realized that there was often no way out but death, which tended to make them rather fearless. But times change, and Mann intricately describes the shift in the orientation of the Japanese government after the post-1600 revolution: the rise of the shogun and the banning of warfare. In these peaceful years, the samurai could have disappeared, but they survived. "The key to their survival," writes the author, "was the way they renewed their sense of identity, not by abandoning the past but by cherry-picking aspects of it to suit new circumstances." The samurai became enforcers of the peace; they could kill at the drop of an insult, an act of adultery or out of revenge. But they were also schooled in the art of speaking and "of attitude, of clothing, of intellectual vigor"—a ready-made diplomatic corps. Smooth, sophisticated history writing.

Kirkus Reviews