from cover

Samurai: An Illustrated history traces the story of a unique historical phenomenon: a period of 700 years-equivalent to the entire stretch of Western history between the reigns of the Crusader King Richard the Lionhearted and of Queen Victoria at height of the British Empire-during which an enclosed civilization was dominated by a single warrior cast.

From the 12th to the 19th centuries the history of Japan was effectively the history of the samurai-the class of professional fighting men. At first they were no more than lowly soldery employed by the court aristocracy of Kyoto but the growing power of the provincial warrior clans soon enabled them to brush aside the executive power of the imperial court and to form their own parallel military government. Though individual dynasties came and went in cycles of vigor and decadence, the dominance of the samurai as a class proved uniquely resilient.

Through centuries of warfare, rebellion, and treachery, through invasion and overseas expeditions, the ever-shifting alliances of samurai families struggled relentlessly for land and power. The great warrior clans were founded by ruthless adventurers, rose to extend over provinces and whole regions of the country, and fell in utter ruin. At last, from the bloodbath of the Sengoku Jidai-'the age of battles' beginning in the late 15th century-there emerged three extraordinary leaders who pursued the vision of unifying Japan under a single ruler: Oda Nobunaga, his lieutenant and successor Toyotomi Hideyousi, and finally Tokugawa Ieyasu, who fought, plotted, and butchered his way to the ultimate prize.

Early in the 17th century the victorious Tokugawa shoguns took the deliberate decision to isolate Japan comletely; and until U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry anchored off their coast nearly 250 years later the extraordinary medieval world of the samurai was preserved as if in amber. Mitsuo Kure's account ends with the painful birth of modern Japan under the stimulus of that shocking encounter, which finally destroyed the insitutions created by the samurai shoguns.

The historical narrative is supported by explanations of samuai armor, weapons, fortifications, tactics, and customs, and illustrated with nearly 800 fascinationg color photographs, maps, and sketches, including ancient scroll paintings and surviving suits of armor preserved for centuries in Japanese shrines.

Dr. Mitsuo Kure graduated from medical school in 1972 and became a surgeon in Tokyo, where he makes his home. A plastic modeler and figure painter since he was twelve years old, he began an exhausitve research into the history and ways of the samurai to find needed details for samurai figure painting. He published a photographic reenactment book in 1999 as part of the Europa Militaria series, which led to this more extensive work.

Contents

Preface
Introduction
Part 1: The Centuries of the Samurai
Chapter 1: The Rise of the Warrior Class
Chapter 2: The Prosperity of the Heishi
Chapter 3: The Struggle between the Genji and Heishi
Chapter 4: The Hojo Regency
Chapter 5: The Mongol Invasions
Chapter 6: The Fall of the Kamakura Bakufu and the Revival of Imperial Government
Chapter 7: The Muromachi Bakufu
Chapter 8: The Onin War and the Beginnings of Gekokujo
Chapter 9: The Age of Battles-Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Chapter 10: The Reign of Hideyoshi
Chapter 11: Sekigahara-A decisive Battle?
Chapter 12: The Osaka Campaign
Chapter 13: The Christian Rebellion in Shimabara
Chapter 14: The Tokugawa Bakufu
Chapter 15: Dragon Horse, A Pioneer of Modern Japan
Part 2: The Age of the Country at War-Representative Campaigns and Families
The Battle of Okehazama, 1560
The Bears of Kyushu from the 8th to the 16th Centuries AD
The Arrows of Chugoku, 1498-1571
Uesugi Kenshin & Takeda Shingen mid-16th Century AD
Chaos in Kanto 15th & 16th Centuries, AD