Makoto Sugawara

The birth and development of the samurai class brought to the history of Japan an element colorful in the extreme. This class of professional warriors endured for a millenium, coming to an end only with the Meiji Restoration of 1968. the progressive role the samurai played as rulers is surprising from the viewpoint of the world history. Without them, Japan would have remained as it was in ancient times, an easy target for colonization. The saumurai class transformed the anicent society into the feudal society of the Middle Ages and provided a bridge for the final tansformation to a modern nation-state.

Makoto Sugawara approaches the subject of the anicent samurai, the true samurai in that they believed in the justice of self-sacrifice for one's master, in realistic terms through an examination of their historical nature. He discusses where and how the samurai were born, the war between the Minamoto and Taira clans, the struggle betwwen the samurai and the nobility, and the rise and fall of the Kamakura Shogunate.

In his chornicle he interweaves incisive portraits of such figures as Otomo no Yakamochi, the adminstrator-poet who adumbrated the samurai class; Taira no Kiyomori, the leader of the clan whose sudden demise has been the theme of blind lute players for centures; Minamoto no Yoshitusne, whose panache and ambition brought his destruction; and Yoritomo, his cool, calculating brother who founded the Kamakura Shogunate. The Ancient Samurai is compelling reading.

Contents

1 Yakamochi and the Sakimori
2 The rise and fall of the Otomo Clan
3 The Otomo are ruined, The Manyoshu remains
4 Bow and horse and brave men
5 The Zenkunen revolt
6 Ronkokosho: the dream of the Bushi
7 Hachiman Taro Yoshiie and the Gosannen revolt
8 The eve of the Hogen Insurrection
9 The Hogen Insurrection
10 Death for the vanquished, bitterness for the victors
11 The Hieji Insurrection
12 Victory for the Taira Clan
13 Subdue the Taira!
14 Yoritomo mobilizes an army
15 Yoritomo marches into Kamakura
16 Kyoto is captured
17 The death of Yoshinaka
18 Ichi-no-tani
19 The cloistered emperor's resistance
20 Yashima
21 Dan-no-ura
22 A quiet withdrawal from Kyoto
23 Yoritomo's victory
24 Yoritomo visits the capital
25 Yoritomo's death
26 Toward the Jokyu Revolt
27 The reovolt of Go-Toba
28 Yasutoki and teh Joei Code
29 Samurai mores
30 The mystery of the Mongol Invasions
31 The divine wind that didn't blow
32 The demise of the ancient samurai
33 Treacherous usurpation of the powers of superiors… (mehr)

The publication of this Volume was made possible by Daiwa Securities Co., Ltd.

from dust jacket

In Lives of Master Swordsmen you meet the Olympians of swordsmanship, including Tsukahara Bokuden and Miyamoto Musashi, lone wolves who wandered the length and breadth of Japan in search of worthy opponents; Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, whose namesake waw none other than Takeda Shingen, the brilliant warlord duing the Age of cvil Wars; The Yagyu-hereditary instructors of the Tokugawa-whose Zen-instructors of the Tokugawa-whose Zen-based Kage-ryu was the most illustrious of all schools in the annals of Japanese swordsmanship; Ito Kagehisa, the only master swordsman who devoted himself to swordsmanship as wielding a sword; and Kiyokawa Hachiro and Yamaola Tesshu, who played active roles in the Meiji Restoration. The lives of these, master swordsmen unfold against the backdrop of the Age of Civil Wars, the unification of the country by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Fortune Deciding Battle, the Battles of Winter and Summer, the Shimbara Revolt, the Pax Tokugawa, and the Meiji Restoration.

With the exception of the chapter on Tsukahara Bukuden, which is based on oral tradition, Lives of Master Swordsmen is founded on a careful analysis of historical facts. Makoto Sugawara takes especial pains to separate the Musashi of fact from the Musashi of fiction, and achieves startling psychological insights into the character of the great swordsman of ambivalent reputation.

The book also includes the first translation of Fukdochi Shinmyo Roku, the Priest Takuan's limpid Zen treatise on the martial arts. This influential treatise turned the attention fo samurai toward Zen.

The jacket design is the wave-patterned sand of the garden of Tofuku-ji temple in Kyoto. The garden is a superb example of the karesansui style, in which rocks, white sand, and a little moss are used to symboize a landscape. This abstract style reflects the influence of Zen, which many master swordsmen studied.

Contents

1 Tsukahara Bukuden: One Stroke swordsmanship
2 Miyamoto Musashi: Troubled Genius
3 Kamiizumi Nobutsuna: Progenitor of the Yagyu Shinkage school
4 Yagyu Muneyoshi: Swordless Swordsman
5 Yagyu Munenori: Zen Apostle
6 Yagyu Mitusyoshi: Mysterious Fencer
7 Ito Ittosai Kagehisa: Founder of teh Itto School
8 Ono Tadaaki: Swordsmanship and Punishment
9 The Last of the Great Swordsmen
Appendix 1: Fudochi Shinmyo Roku
Appendix 2: The Katana: Enchanting Beauty and a Razor-Sharp Edge
Bibliography
Index… (mehr)