Suggested reading on this era?

[hots_towel]

hey all

I've had S2:TW for a while now, but haven't really had the urge to delve into the history of feudal Japan/Meiji era Japan until recently. I hate using wiki and online quick notes as a way of learning, as it feel like I don't really care enough to actually do the research.

To that extent, I was wondering if anyone knows of any good gooks on these eras of Japan's history that are really good accounts of the workings and events of that time period. Of course anything that isn't too dry or convoluted would be appreciated, but either way, any suggestions are much appreciated.

prost

[Destin Faroda]

Turnbull seems to be an expert when it comes to Japanese military history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephe...28historian%29
I've seen him in a documentation that showed the dark side of the samurai (cutting off heads in order to receive bounties and killing innocents to test the sharpness of katanas).

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Opsrey books? I don't know of very many books in English but I myself am in the midst of a search. I am compiling a list of reading material and when I am done I will post it.

[Stincky]

George Sansom's a history of japan 1334-1615

[hots_towel]

thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll keep an eye out for those and hopefully will get a hold of them soon.

[RubiconDecision]

Stephen Turnbull is routinely laughed at concerning his books on Japanese medieval history. However the main problem is a lack of books on the samurai that are in English. Some Osprey books are good on miltary history, but most are not. It depends upon who is writing them. Some are military historians and experts in that field they are writing about, and others are not. In the last two years, I was impressed by one on the medieval Byzantines when I had all but discounted that a good military book from Osprey was possible. You should note that again, Dr. Turnbull has written many Osprey books on the samurai.

Depending upon the subject matter, some rather rare books can help illuminate arcane topics about the samurai. I'd heartily recommend that you do four things to save money and locate the specific types of books you're trying to find research about.

1) Write a sincere post in the Samurai Archives Citadel seeking information. They do have a reading list for general information about the samurai, but they also have specilized topics on many of the famous samurai and clans. Because they sell books, I can't include a link to their book list, nor am I endorsing one. Some in that book list you may be able to acquire by interlibrary loan in the USA (a book can be borrowed between libraries and then checked out locally).

2) When you find something you're interested in, see if you can find that information in Google Books. There often are whole paragraphs written about these sorts of things.

3) As you do research, see if you can find the Japanese word for that specific thing. It will be in kanji (a pictogram of a word) or it will be in hiragana which is a spelled out word instead of a pictogram. Once you have this, then do a google search of that word, plus a more specified search in Google Books. It's very tedious, but you can then find information with English commentary on occasion.

4) Oxford has done several books, some as a series on Japanese History during the medieval era. This is an authoratative source.

In addition, you may wish to consult with more specialized historial academic sites like Japonica which is in English. Some Japanese academic information may be in English as well. Start with the simpler ones first.