This is a significant story, and Perrin tells it marvelously well, with rich detail, captivating quotations from observers of the time, both Japanese and Western, and a wealth of revealing comparisons with contemporary technology, warfare, and life in Europe. This little book is both thought-provoking and a delight to read. Edwin O. Reischauer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Professor Noel Perrin has written an elegant monograph, magnificently illustrated with a wealth of Japanese prints. --New York Times Book Review
Through his description of one historical event in Japan s national experience, Noel Perrin has written a book as tight and elegant as haiku. The story is a fascinating one: Japan s introduction to, mastery of, and subsequent abandonment of, the gun.... Perrin s work is so crisp and interesting, and so loaded with background information and revealing anecdotes, that the whole peculiar episode it describes jumps to life from its pages. --The New Republic
This is a significant story, and Perrin tells it marvelously well, with rich detail, captivating quotations from observers of the time, both Japanese and Western, and a wealth of revealing comparisons with contemporary technology, warfare, and life in Europe. This little book is both thought-provoking and a delight to read. --Edwin O. Reischauer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan
Through his description of one historical event in Japan s national experience, Noel Perrin has written a book as tight and elegant as haiku. The story is a fascinating one: Japan s introduction to, mastery of, and subsequent abandonment of, the gun.... Perrin s work is so crisp and interesting, and so loaded with background information and revealing anecdotes, that the whole peculiar episode it describes jumps to life from its pages. --The New Republic
This is a significant story, and Perrin tells it marvelously well, with rich detail, captivating quotations from observers of the time, both Japanese and Western, and a wealth of revealing comparisons with contemporary technology, warfare, and life in Europe. This little book is both thought-provoking and a delight to read. --Edwin O. Reischauer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan
Through his description of one historical event in Japan s national experience, Noel Perrin has written a book as tight and elegant as haiku. The story is a fascinating one: Japan s introduction to, mastery of, and subsequent abandonment of, the gun.... Perrin s work is so crisp and interesting, and so loaded with background information and revealing anecdotes, that the whole peculiar episode it describes jumps to life from its pages. --The New Republic
This is a significant story, and Perrin tells it marvelously well, with rich detail, captivating quotations from observers of the time, both Japanese and Western, and a wealth of revealing comparisons with contemporary technology, warfare, and life in Europe. This little book is both thought-provoking and a delight to read. --Edwin O. Reischauer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan
Through his description of one historical event in Japan s national experience, Noel Perrin has written a book as tight and elegant as haiku. The story is a fascinating one: Japan s introduction to, mastery of, and subsequent abandonment of, the gun.... Perrin s work is so crisp and interesting, and so loaded with background information and revealing anecdotes, that the whole peculiar episode it describes jumps to life from its pages. --The New Republic
This is a significant story, and Perrin tells it marvelously well, with rich detail, captivating quotations from observers of the time, both Japanese and Western, and a wealth of revealing comparisons with contemporary technology, warfare, and life in Europe. This little book is both thought-provoking and a delight to read. --Edwin O. Reischauer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan
About the Author
Noel Perrin (1927-2004) was the author of thirteen books and a frequent contributor to Vermont Life, Country Journal, The New Yorker, and other magazines.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 52 people found the following review helpful
By W. D ONEIL
Format:Paperback
If you take a course relating to Japanese history of this period one of the first things they will do is warn you off Perrin. He had no real knowledge of Japanese history but got this neat idea about how he imagined it happened and then looked for facts to "prove" his point, ignoring all the things that didn't fit with what he "knew" just had to be the truth.
The fact is that guns helped the three great unifiers of Japan (Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu) create a government that was strong enough to end war completely for 250 years (from 1615 to the 1860s). Guns were unnecessary and not needed, so not many were made. End of story, no mysterious Japanese reverence for the sword or resistance to modern things required.
See for instance the review by Conrad Totman in _Journal of Asian Studies_, v. 39 (1980): 599-601.
The fact is that guns helped the three great unifiers of Japan (Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu) create a government that was strong enough to end war completely for 250 years (from 1615 to the 1860s). Guns were unnecessary and not needed, so not many were made. End of story, no mysterious Japanese reverence for the sword or resistance to modern things required.
See for instance the review by Conrad Totman in _Journal of Asian Studies_, v. 39 (1980): 599-601.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read Noel Perrin's little book soon after it was first published in a different imprint, but returned to it around the time of the Gulf War in 1991 to remind myself of a few things that Professor Perrin wanted us to think about. I think many readers may mistake it as primarily a book about Japanese history or about the Tokugawa clan who banned guns mainly to maintain civil order in what was a genuine police state, one they were to rule for 250 years. Though a long-time student of Japan, I shudder to think of someone like Saddam Hussein picking up a few lessons from the Tokugawas. Perrin's point, though, was peace. He wrote this book, I believe, because he was a passionate anti-nuclear activist and advocate of non-proliferation. In talking to friends, he learned how the Tokugawas had - perhaps for the only time in human history - decided to give up a weapon of mass destruction, and they did it in part because they saw it as an evil, and a threat to their martial society. Samurai were expected to live and die by the sword, though the warlords who fought it out for control of Japan in the war-filled years around 1600 that brought the Tokugawas to power were perfectly happy to use massed muskets in battles that created more carnage than would be seen on any battlefield until the Napoleonic wars. At the end of the day, Perrin's assessment of the moral purpose of the Shoguns who banned the gun is probably naive, these were power hungry and paranoid dictators who sought to prevent massed musket attacks against themselves. But the book provides a fascinating vignette of how a society reordered itself and learned to live in peace for 250 years.... Read more ›
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This well-written, nicely illustrated, and brief volume provides solid historical evidence that technology is not a force of nature: human beings can and do decide which technologies to adopt and develop. Perrin's book is an excellent companion to Richard Sclove and Steve Fuller's DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY, where the question of who should decide, and how, is elaborated
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Perrin thoroughly undermines his case with his unstoppable arrogance and partiality towards the Japanese. To him, they were the best at everything they tried their hands at, and the poor West serves as a bumbling, backward foil to this genius people. While Japanese superiority in a number of fields is well-documented (and Perrin does a good job with the quality of swords) Perrin's chauvinism is jarring and makes it hard to hear him. It also blinds him to what seems to be the major force behind the Japanese reversion to the sword: at the same time, Japan closed itself almost entirely to foreigners (who had introduced guns and every innovation having to do with them to Japan). The ferocious chauvinism of 17th - 18th century Japan (which one might daresay existed through, say, 1945, and contibuted not a small amount to their cruel wars of conquest in Asia), combined with a centralized, authoritarian, non-democratic, government and pacified country-side, are clearly the major forces behind the reversion to the sword - and this much is clear using nothing but Perrin's book! Still, he can't admit it, which is frustrating. By avoiding this critical aspect of the Japanese reversion to the sword, with all of its very unsavory aspects, Perrin sabotages any understanding of what such an action meant and could mean for us. Maybe a more thoughtful commentator can provoke us to ask some meaningful questions.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Yaisel
Format:Paperback
Perrin was an English professor, not a historian, and it shows in the quality of the work he produced. His assertions regarding the Japanese "giving up the gun" are demonstrably incorrect, as any review of period school curricula (which included training in matchlocks) or period artwork (some of which depicts samurai using them) would show.
As stated by other reviewers, the reason the Japanese stopped using matchlocks was because they stopped fighting wars, not out of some profound attempt to reverse technological progress. Indeed, such an idea is foolish on its face; any attempt to do so by the shoguns would have left open the chance of a secret stockpile of said weapons being created by an ambitious lord and used to overthrow the government.
In short, this is not a serious piece of historical work, and should be used only as a target to teach students how to shred a poorly-made argument.
As stated by other reviewers, the reason the Japanese stopped using matchlocks was because they stopped fighting wars, not out of some profound attempt to reverse technological progress. Indeed, such an idea is foolish on its face; any attempt to do so by the shoguns would have left open the chance of a secret stockpile of said weapons being created by an ambitious lord and used to overthrow the government.
In short, this is not a serious piece of historical work, and should be used only as a target to teach students how to shred a poorly-made argument.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a refreshing read
I picked this up after hearing the Vampire Weekend song. Not really the usual transition, but I liked the song and after finding out where the name came from I liked the book... Read more
Published 22 days ago by B. Austin
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Evil Gun
It's been some time since I read this book but it left an impression. After enthusiastically replicating Portuguese matchlocks for 100 years, the Japanese warrior class abandoned... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Ron Braithwaite
5.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting little book
I readily confess not to being an expert in Japanese history, or even particularly knowledgeable about it, but I was loaned this little book, which was sufficiently short to be... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Teemacs
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's no just about Japan
What a wonderful book! I wondered if it was gonna be too academic to enjoy. On the contrary, it was a great read. Read more
Published on November 26, 2009 by six lalala
4.0 out of 5 stars
Elegant and Curious History of Japan's Reversion to the Sword.
"Giving Up the Gun" isn't intended to be exhaustive or deeply detailed. It's the story of one civilization's conscious choice to forgo a modern technology in favor of tradition,... Read more
Published on June 19, 2008 by mirasreviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Gun vs. The Samurai
Guns are great equalizers. With a gun, a cheap punk can become a lord of crime, a splay-footed peasant can become a legendary dacoit. Read more
Published on February 24, 2008 by Giordano Bruno
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, fresh look at Tokugawa Japan
Perrin's book has a great focus: the Japanese gun. Usually, one associates the sword with Japanese martial arts. Read more
Published on June 19, 2004 by J. Holt
5.0 out of 5 stars
a bang
I made the mistake of beginning to read this book before I went to bed. I read long into the night, unable to put it down. Read more
Published on October 3, 2003 by G. B. Talovich
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Meaningful Book
The story of going from one of the world's most armed nations to one where guns became rare is a fascinating one. I learned a lot about older Japan along the way. Read more
Published on March 17, 2001 by F. Peter Seidel
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