Samurai - A Very Short Introduction

The idea of the sword-wielding samurai, warriors beholden to a strict ethical code and trained in deadly martial arts, dominates popular conceptions. As early as the late seventeenth century, they were heavily featured in literature, art, theater, and even comedy. This legacy continues in film, and countless renditions of samurai history in anime, manga, and video games. Much as they capture the modern imagination, the samurai commanded influence over the politics, arts, philosophy and religion of their own time, and ultimately controlled Japan from the fourteenth century until their demise in the mid-nineteenth century. On and off the battlefield, whether charging an enemy on horseback or currying favor at the imperial court, their story is one of adventures and intrigues, heroics and misdeeds, unlikely victories and devastating defeats.

List of contents

• Introduction


• Chapter One: Becoming Those Who Served


• Chapter Two: Early Warrior Authority


• Chapter Three: War and Culture


• Chapter Four: Warriors in an Age of Peace


• Chapter Five: Samurai Invention and Decline


• References


• Further Reading


• Index

About the author

Michael Wert is Associate Professor of East Asian History at Marquette University. Specializing in early modern and modern Japan, he is the author of Meiji Restoration Losers: Memory and Tokugawa Supporters in Modern Japan.

Product details

• Authors: Michael Wert, Michael ( Wert, Wert Michael
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.07.2021
• EAN: 9780190685072
• ISBN: 978-0-19-068507-2
• No. of pages: 144
• Series: Very Short Introductions
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, Society & culture: general, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Holidays (non-religious), Sociology: sport & leisure, Sociology: sport and leisure, Society and culture: general