Customer Reviews

Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan

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I had to read this book and write a review on it for my Japanese History course at school. However, after starting the book I soon realized that I was in over my head. The detail of this book is amazing and his sources and citations are top notch. The author also includes a glossary that comes in handy. However, if you are not an Asian scholar or have some type of deep seated interest in the subject, you might want to reconsider. This book is extremely advanced and left me having to read several pages over and over until I caught everything. My biggest gripe with the book is the author's way of introducing the Japanese language into the book. While writing the author would have what the Japanese word is for a selected word, i.e. warrior. However after having seen the Japanese word the author would then replace the english word for the Japanese one. I would not get far before I had no clue what the words meant, and I lost track of the argument the author was making because I was looking at the glossary repeatedly or looking through previous pages. No doubt the book is well researched and the author knowledgeable, but novices beware.

Karl Friday's "Hired Swords" is a fairly brief book, though it packs a tonne of information into the 177 pages of main text, (not including endnotes, index and all the rest).

Friday focuses on the Heian Period in Japan, mainly from the late 7th century to the 11th and 12th centuries. The book deals with the military structures and how they changed through the Heian Period. This includes the policing functions of some military units, as well. Rather than accepting the common perception that the Heian court was an ineffectual group of flunkies more interested in poetry than practical realities, Friday presents quite a different view. Instead of attributing the rise of private military groups to Court indifference, Friday posits that the changes made were deliberate changes by the Court to streamline the military, increase its efficiency and meet changing needs throughout the period.

Friday provides copious endnotes, adding more detail to what is given in the text. He has referenced his work well, leaving no doubt that he has thought this through thoroughly.

I completely enjoyed this book without reservation, and I gained a lot from it. It was easily read, I found it accessible, and I was hooked until the last page. I can recommend this book wholeheartedly as a must for anyone interested in the developments of Heian military organisation. and how it fed into the rise of the Samurai some centuries later.

An excellent reading on the subject of Japan's military history in the ancient period.