Can anybody tell me about any great books about samurai?
One of the best known “samurai” books is the classic Shogun by British author James Clavell. One of my favorite books ever, it takes place during the ‘warring states period’, around the 1600s, and is a loose adaptation of the rise of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Full of intrigue, backstabbing, plotting and fighting, I couldn’t put it down.
I would heartily recommend Shogun as well. I read it probably 20 years ago, and loved. Can’t really recall how much it focused on samurai, per se, but what a great read.
Kodansha press have a great english translation of the semi-historical novel Musashi, written by Yoshikawa Eiji. It’s really quite gripping, and I found the whole ‘samurai ethic’ thing that is questioned so heavily in the work quite fascinating.
It’s also thick enough (despite being printed on very thin paper) that you can hit people with it when they continuously ask ‘what’s that? What are you reading? Why would you read something like that?’ WALLOP!. (in very Samurai/pleb fashion!). Did I come off as a literary philistine there? I’m sure I did! grin.
Criterion also released three movies (The Samurai Trilogy) based on the novel. Staring our old fave Toshiro Mifune as Musashi. It’s a great set of films, if only for the detail that remains despite the nescessary streamlining required to turn a book of several thousand pages into three two-hour movies. It also has a wonderful asthetic that seems to only come from films in the early days of colour (the films were shot in the early 1950’s).
Mind you, if you want a genuine Samurai book, you could always read The Book of Five Rings, written by Musashi himself back in the day (earli/mid 17th century).
I have just started reading a book by Yoshikawa Eiji (author of Musashi) called Taiko.Amazon link.
I’m only a chapter or two into this 900 page novel so I can’t comment on its quality but it seems to be getting some good ratings at Amazon.
I read through a few of the reviews and one describes the book as “a novelized, and in some areas, a speculative account of actual historical events”.
The Amazon page linked above has some other Samurai books under the “Customers who bought this book also bought …” section that you might want to check out.
I remember two books in a series years ago called something like Shrike…can’t remember the author off the top of my head. It was about feudal Japan. The main character was a monk, kind of like a ninja…but nastier. 
It wasn’t about Samurai per se, but they were definitely in it. Was a really good story as I recall.
There is also the Book of 5 Rings, but this isnt fiction, its philosophy. Shogun was also enjoyable. Also read Musashi which was good.
-XT
I don’t have suggestions, other than what has been mentioned, since I’m not sure what has been translated into English. In any event both Musashi and Shogun are good places to start with. Both novels are based on real stories and have been very well researched.
Musashi’s Book of Five Rings is online at:
http://www.samurai.com/5rings/
And if that gets you interested in Japanese history, you can get a copy of “The Tale of Genji”, which is one small part of the history of Japan, and perhaps their version of the Gilded Age. It marks - just barely and quite quietly - the the tise of the Samurai. After this novel’s period, the warrior/administrator class would start to rise in power and sophistication, and the courtly nobility never again reclaimed their place. After the time of Genji, it was the Samurai that increasingly determined Japanese society.
If you’re looking for something a little more academic, I recommend Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan by Karl F. Friday ( 1992, Stanford University Press ).
Much more general and not as strong, but perhaps still worth looking at is The Samurai: A Military History by Stephen Turnbull ( 1977, 1996, recent printing by Japan Library, an imprint of Curzon Press Ltd. ).
For a survey history of Japan up until the mid-19th century, you could do a lot worse than to start with George Sansom’s classic three volume set, A History of Japan. The first covers pre-history to 1334, the second 1334-1615, the third 1615-1867. All originally published in 1961 and frequently reprinted since then by Stanford University Press.
- Tamerlane