Samurai: Arms, Armor, Costume [Hardcover]

Mitsuo Kure (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2007

Samurai: An Illustrated History brings the violent, tumultuous, and, at the same time, elegant world of the medieval Japanese samurai to life. With a general introduction that examines the origins of the samurai and their rise to power, Samurai presents a chronological coverage of samurai history detailing the main battles, personnel, and general themes. Additional chapters are studies of samurai armor and weaponry, fortifications, and the changes in strategy and armor upon the introduction of firearms and cannon. All chapters are illustrated by photographs of battle re-enactments meticulously conducted by the enthusiastic historical re-enactment societies of Japan, and by line drawings of fortifications and armor. Samurai vividly details the long bloody era of the samurai, when sons killed their fathers, brothers attacked their brothers, wives betrayed their husbands and hosts their guests, and the forces of the samurai rulers destroyed those of the emperors and the monasteries. The samurai fought for property, lands, and money, and only rarely for honor--Samurai tells that compelling story with vigor.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mitsuo Kure graduated from medical school in 1972 and became a surgeon based in Tokyo. His lifelong interest in samurai began at an early age, when he began constructing historically accurate models of samurai figures. Later, with the assistance on Togo Ryu, a well-known Japanese historical novelist, he began to reconstruct full-size samurai armor and started what is now one of the premier re-enactment groups in Japan. His group is currently one of the leading organisers of samurai battle re-enactments in Japan.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Chartwell Books (April 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785822089
• ISBN-13: 978-0785822080
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,395,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Summary of Samurai history and equipment, August 27, 2002

By 

B. (Alexandria, VA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samurai: An Illustrated History (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent summary of samurai history, equipment and tactics. Of the Samurai books I've read, this is the best overall treatment.

The author covers each major period with a general description of the history of the period. He then provides profuse illustrations, battle maps, photos of reenactors and surviving artifacts.

It has the clear and easy to understand description and drawings of samurai armor. The photos of reenactors are really great. They really bring the subject to life.

The historical narative is brief and covers just the basics of the complex maneuvering, diplomacy and warfare that was characteristic for this period. Hard core researchers will probably find this thin,. But for a reader interested in a solid overview of the period, this book is great.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Book, April 28, 2007

By 

Somyunguy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samurai: Arms, Armor, Costume (Hardcover)

This book is decent, if you know what you're getting. It's primarily a picture book, with a wide variety of both military and civilian Japanese dress from various periods (primarily military dress/armor). The pictures are all actual modern color photos of reenactors with blank white background to them, and brief descriptions of the costume and purpose (some of which is actual antique, but most is reproduction).
On the good side, it's a great book for actually seeing what the stuff really looked like on real people. On the downside, there was apparently no editor with English as a first language, so bad sentence structure, grammar and spelling are rampant; but no big deal as it is brief and still gets the point across. You can also see the guys with the distinct samurai hair cuts are wearing obvious rubber bald-caps, and the same few individuals throughout. Also, the author oversteppes the bounds of his knowledge once or twice when attempting to compare things to Western equivalents.

It's worth the money if you know what you're getting.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not the Must-Have I was led to believe., January 28, 2008

By 

Lisa Joseph - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samurai: Arms, Armor, Costume (Hardcover)

Well. It's big and red and shiny and has lots of very pretty photographs of live human beings posing in armor and costumes. It has a gushy description on the inside of the dust jacket about how historically authentic everything is inside!!!!!

It also has a preface by its author in which he mentions "the curator of a private museum in Kyoto." He finally rambles around to mentioning the "Japanese costume museum in Kyoto." He never, ever thanks or acknowledges Izutsu-san by name either. Nor does he identify any of the collections or reproduction sources of any of the arms or armaments.

Dr. Kure is a doctor of medicine. He got interested in researching samurai militaria while painting models for gaming. This led him to re-enacting. Great, as a hobbyist myself, I applaud that. It's just that if you're going to embark on "an obsessive quest for accuracy," how about telling us where you found this stuff so we can come along for the ride?

Not a single footnote. (Am I weird for reading footnotes?)

Not a single corroborating image from period artwork.

No bibliography whatsoever.

I am willing to cut some slack on some truly clunky prose descriptions of outfits as Dr. Kure is not writing in his first language. However, there's an awful lot of inconsistent spellings of phonetically rendered Japanese words. Utiki becomes uchigi and uchiki and wanders back again, for example. Clearly, while Dr. Kure was busy copying information off costume diagrams from the KCM, he wasn't actually reading them. Nor was the lady he credits for "correcting my poor English." This is sloppiness, plain and simple, and it's EXACTLY the sort of thing that's going to confuse a novice costumer or armorer and hinder their obsessive quest for accuracy.

Dr. Kure could have concentrated specifically on armor and male dress, but no, he includes several women's outfits - and confusion runs rampant. "This samurai lady is wearing a blue uchiki coat on top of a violet hitoe. In being fastened on her upper chest, the obi belt differs from that of later periods." Click here for a similar outfit from the Kyoto Costume Museum.) WTF does this mean????? Well, yes, she's wearing a kake-obi. Now look at the fold in her outermost robe at about the tops of her thighs. What do you suppose is holding up the hems of her layered hitoe and uchigi so she can walk in them? I'll give you a hint. Two syllables, starts with "O." Why the kake-obi? To keep all that excess overlap lying neatly while she's out and about because her waist obi is under two or more layers keeping her hems out of the mud. Kake-obi make even MORE sense when one is using a kosode as a veil as shown here. I admit that women's pre-Edo period clothing is my area of focus, but if similar things are going on with the armor and militaria, this book is a minefield.

It's not completely useless. The pictures do show a degree of detail that the ones at the Kyoto Costume Museum website do not. But even the translated "explanation" windows at KCM are better than the muddle that is Dr. Kure's text.

Very disappointing.