This volume is the third installment of a set of six Cambridge Histories of Japan. It is centered on 'Medieval Japan', which in Japanese History usually applies to the period between 1185 and 1568, covering the Kamakura, Nambokucho and Muromachi periods. In this age the Imperial Court loses ground and power, and the military government of the Shoguns is established. In society, Buddhism takes a greater stranglehold on the mentalities and beliefs, and new sects arrise (Jodo, Jodo Shin, Zen, Nichiren). Central authority is progressively weakened, and a socio-economic order vagely similar to western Feudalism appears, with a strong decentralization of political power (especially for the last century or so, when daimyos rule the land with almost complete autonomy).
Now, centering on the volume: it contains all the good and bad things of the Cambridge Histories. The good ones are the superb scholarship, made by specialists on the field and touching its subjects with depth and technical expertise. But that virtue is also the greatest setback. Don't expect a clear-cut, linear, mainly political history of Medieval Japan in this volume. On the contrary, you get a set of independent and hardly related monographs which are very vaguely ordered bearing in mind chronological order and subject-matter (first the ones on political history and economy; then the ones about foreign relations, culture and religion).
If what you're looking for is an extensive an coherent historical account of Medieval Japan, and/or you're a begginer to the subject, this book isn't for you. Now, if you already have a clear scheme of the main reigns, battles, events... in your head, and you want to deepen (or even subvert) the conventional truths and explanations, the book will come handy; bear in mind that even its 'political' monographs take for granted you are acquainted with events like Jokyu no ran or the Gempei wars and don't bother to narrate much.
That being said, all monographs are high quality, but can make very dull reading (especially if, for example, you aren't too interested in different types of land tenure or taxes). Best way to use the Histories is to navigate to the monographs that interest you. In this volume, I liked very much the one by Barbara Ruch, which tried to dispell topics and stereotypes about 'Japanese Medieval Culture'.
That's about it. I give it 4 stars. The scholarship deserves more, but it is only of real use to specialists, and the occasional dullness and lack of general historial narration would take it down rather fast. 4 is the middle ground, although I feel it might be too positive for the expectations I had when I got the book.
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