A Brief History of the Samurai - Jonathan Clements Audiobook

Written by Jonathan Clements
Read by Jonathan Keeble
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Series: Brief Histories
Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
Release date: 02-07-14
Publisher: Audible Studios

From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior.

The Samurai emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500 years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in the advent of the mechanized world.

“Jonathan Clement’s entry in the “Brief History..” series delivers precisely what it says on the tin: a concise, for the layman not overly elaborate survey of the 700 (!) year-long de facto reign of the samurai, Japan’s illustrious elite warrior class.

Within these boundaries, the author executes his gargantuan task exceedingly well, as he covers the major events of the island’s tumultuous history, yet without losing sight of the personal lives affected by them. As such, it is an ideal stepping stone to more detailed - perhaps more engrossing – works operating in a smaller timeframe or touching on one specific aspect, which the author thoughtfully makes ample reference to.

Quite the sobering read though, especially if popular culture has somehow instilled in you romantic notions of the “way of the samurai”. With even a cursory reading, such a naive view is quickly laid to rest. Small, isolated acts of moving kindness and ethical integrity are drowned out by a suffocating deluge of acts of petty envy, cowardly betrayal, pointless tribalism, cold-blooded murder and indiscriminate mass slaughter of women and children.”

Personal note—our major Art Museum had an installation on the art of crafting the samurai’s sword. Gorgeous works of lethal art. One display had panels showing how a sword was tested in medieval Japan, for all its uses…. they used convicts.