Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales

Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales PDF Author: Paul Varley
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824816018
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
A leading cultural historian of premodern Japan draws a rich portrait of the emerging samurai culture as it is portrayed in gunki-mono, or war tales, examining eight major works spanning the mid-tenth to late fourteenth centuries. Although many of the major war tales have been translated into English, Warriors of Japan is the first book-length study of the tales and their place in Japanese history. The war tales are one of the most important sources of knowledge about Japan's premodern warriors, revealing much about the medieval psyche and the evolving perceptions of warriors, warfare, and warrior customs.

Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales

Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales PDF Author: Paul Varley
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824816018
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
A leading cultural historian of premodern Japan draws a rich portrait of the emerging samurai culture as it is portrayed in gunki-mono, or war tales, examining eight major works spanning the mid-tenth to late fourteenth centuries. Although many of the major war tales have been translated into English, Warriors of Japan is the first book-length study of the tales and their place in Japanese history. The war tales are one of the most important sources of knowledge about Japan's premodern warriors, revealing much about the medieval psyche and the evolving perceptions of warriors, warfare, and warrior customs.

Heavenly Warriors

Heavenly Warriors PDF Author: William Wayne Farris
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684172977
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
“In a government, military matters are the essential thing,” said Japan’s “Heavenly Warrior,” the Emperor Temmu, in 684. Heavenly Warriors traces in detail the evolutionary development of weaponry, horsemanship, military organization, and tactics from Japan’s early conflicts with Korea up to the full-blown system of the samurai. Enhanced by illustrations and maps, and with a new preface by the author, this book will be indispensable for students of military history and Japanese political history.

The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha

The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha PDF Author: Mikael S. Adolphson
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824865081
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Japan’s monastic warriors have fared poorly in comparison to the samurai, both in terms of historical reputation and representations in popular culture. Often maligned and criticized for their involvement in politics and other secular matters, they have been seen as figures separate from the larger military class. However, as Mikael Adolphson reveals in his comprehensive and authoritative examination of the social origins of the monastic forces, political conditions, and warfare practices of the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura (1185–1333) eras, these "monk-warriors"(sôhei) were in reality inseparable from the warrior class. Their negative image, Adolphson argues, is a construct that grew out of artistic sources critical of the established temples from the fourteenth century on. In deconstructing the sôhei image and looking for clues as to the characteristics, role, and meaning of the monastic forces, The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha highlights the importance of historical circumstances; it also points to the fallacies of allowing later, especially modern, notions of religion to exert undue influence on interpretations of the past. It further suggests that, rather than constituting a separate category of violence, religious violence needs to be understood in its political, social, military, and ideological contexts.

The Samurai Swordsman

The Samurai Swordsman PDF Author: Stephen Turnbull
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1783838612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
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.

The Origins of Japan’s Medieval World

The Origins of Japan’s Medieval World PDF Author: Jeffrey P. Mass
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804743792
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description
This pioneering collection of 15 essays argues that Japan's medieval age began in the 14th century rather than the 12th, and marks the beginning of a fundamentally new debate about how Japan's lengthy classical period finally ended.

Interdisciplinary Edo

Interdisciplinary Edo PDF Author: Joshua Schlachet
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040050107
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Interdisciplinary Edo brings together scholars from across the methodological spectrum to explore new approaches to innovative humanistic research on early modern Japan (1603–1868). It makes an intervention in the field by thinking across conventional disciplinary boundaries toward a holistic and cohesive approach to Japan’s early modern period. By taking historical, religious, literary, and art historical analyses into account, the contributors hope to begin a new, transdisciplinary conversation on political formation, social interaction, and cultural proliferation under the “Great Peace” of the Tokugawa regime. This book comprises 14 essays by specialists of history, literature, religious studies, and art history. Major topics include Edo-period Japan’s cultural, intellectual, and economic connections to the early modern world; environmental humanities and material culture; popular culture and aesthetics; and the question of how contemporary academic demarcation lines impact the current study of Tokugawa Japan. Individual essays range in scale from individual paintings and works of prose fiction to the tectonic plates underlying the Yamashiro basin and span topics from overseas medicinal exchange and premodern cartography to the history of intoxication. Interdisciplinary Edo will be of immediate interest to all scholars focusing on the early modern period, as well as to researchers studying other periods of Japanese studies. As part of an ongoing and inclusive process of pluralizing and deprovincializing global conceptions of early modernity, this book will contribute to historiographical interventions outside Japan studies as well.

A History of East Asia

A History of East Asia PDF Author: Charles Holcombe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107118735
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 495

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Book Description
The second edition of Charles Holcombe's acclaimed introduction to East Asian history from the dawn of history to the twenty-first century.

Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy PDF Author: Routledge (Firm)
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415223644
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1066

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Book Description
The scholarship of this monumental and award-winning ten-volume work is available in one affordable book that brings together more than 2,000 entries from the original in a shortened, more accessible format. Extensively cross-referenced and indexed.

Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy PDF Author: Professor Edward Craig
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134593910
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1066

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Book Description
The most complete and up-to-date philosophy reference for a new generation, with entries ranging from Abstract Objects to Wisdom, Socrates to Jean-Paul Sartre, Ancient Egyptian Philosophy to Yoruba Epistemology. The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy includes: * More than 2000 alphabetically arranged, accessible entries * Contributors from more than 1200 of the world's leading thinkers * Comprehensive coverage of the classic philosophical themes, such as Plato, Arguments for the Existence of God and Metaphysics * Up-to-date coverage of contemporary philosophers, ideas, schools and recent developments, including Jacques Derrida, Poststructuralism and Ecological Philosophy * Unrivalled international and multicultural scope with entries such as Modern Islamic Philosophy, Marxist Thought in Latin America and Chinese Buddhist Thought * An exhaustive index for ease of use * Extensive cross-referencing * Suggestions for further reading at the end of each entry

Authorizing the Shogunate

Authorizing the Shogunate PDF Author: Vyjayanthi R. Selinger
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004255338
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
The Genpei War of 1180-1185 signaled a crucial shift in Japanese history because it gave birth to the shogunate, or government run by warriors. How was the emergence of this new polity following a contentious civil war explained in literary texts? This book argues that political authority is made visible in the variant texts of the Heike monogatari corpus through rituals that map the ideal social-cosmic order, overwriting untidy historical realities. Artifacts of material culture likewise provide the social and political codes to authenticate warrior power and manage its violence. Through its focus on ritual and material practices, this book offers a new perspective on how texts from fourteenth century Japan harnessed symbolic understandings of authority to evoke order and contain rupture. Equally significant is its analysis of the Genpei jōsuiki a Heike monogatari variant that played a critical role in the retrospection of medieval Japan through the early modern period.