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Book Cover
E-book
Author Wert, Michael, author

Title Samurai : a very short introduction / Michael Wert
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]
©2021

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Description 1 online resource (120 pages) : illustrations
Series Very short introductions
Very short introductions
Summary "A book about the samurai from their origins in the eighth and ninth centuries until their demise in the mid-nineteenth century. It dispels a lot of myths about the samurai one might encounter in popular culture. It describes samurai life, work, philosophy, and warfare as it changed over time. It covers what samurai were doing when they weren't fighting. For example, samurai who engaged in commerce, formed gangs, begged, and even taught samurai etiquette and martial arts to non-samurai. The first half of the book tends to focus on warriors, some of whom were essentially aristocrats; warrior families who looked to non-warrior nobles for models of behaviour, lifestyle, and politics. It traces the early formation of a warrior regime, how it interacted with an emperor-centered noble court located permanently in Kyoto, and the political and cultural struggles within the warrior class. The second half of the book zeros in on the details of warlord families, the struggles of "rank-and-file" samurai typically depicted in popular culture-warriors from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. It also shows how samurai history, culture, and values were consumed by non-samurai and, in so doing, contributed to an idealized warrior image that even samurai themselves tried to emulate"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on December 21, 2021)
Subject Samurai.
Samurai
SUBJECT Japan -- History, Military. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85069516
Subject Japan
Genre/Form Military history
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020048485
ISBN 9780190685102
0190685107
9780190932954
0190932953
9780190685096
0190685093
9780190685089
0190685085
0190685077
9780190685072