Book Review: Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan

Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan in Dr. Karl Friday's contribution to the "Warfare and History" series created by Jeremy Black. I've only read a few other titles in this series, but Friday's is easily my favorite.

This work provides a stunning amount of information on the advancements in weapon technology in Japan's medieval period. A feat that is even more amazing considering the length of the book. (It's only 236 pages including an extensive notes and index section.) Friday spends a great deal of time discussing the Later Three Years War. I particularly liked this feature as I am not very familiar with this particular conflict, and it was very interesting to see the weapons and strategies used at this time.

Friday also discusses the gokenin in great deal. These men carried a great deal of responsibility in Pre-Sengoku Japan. They served the Shogunate during the Kamakura period and served all types of roles from bodyguard to warrior to administrator. These men were some of the most important people in Japan's history and Friday paints them in the appropriate light.

Friday also delves into the difference between tactics and strategy in military affairs. This is something that is usually sorely needed in any academic study of a military field. One of my favorite sub-fields within this area was Friday's discussion of mounted tactics used by the soldiers at this time. There were terrific diagrams used to show how mounted Samurai would maneuver their horse to position themselves perfectly for an attack or defense, depending on their situation.

Outside of the diagrams used for defining mounted fighting tactics, Friday uses chart and tables tremendously in this work. There were several graphic comparisons between the different weapons that were in use at the time. In fact, outside of a typical weapons manual, this work may have the most detailed information on the different tools used for warfare during this period. The tables on both military and governmental organization were also well done and very helpful.

Armor construction is one of the more confusing aspects of Samurai warfare. Fortunately, Friday does his best to describe a few of the techniques used for armor construction within becoming too reliant on jargon. His section on this are was extremely informative and is a source that I will certainly turn too for future reference on the subject.

5.0/5.0

I don't give too many books a perfect rating. I can usually find something wrong or irritating with any work. However, Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan is one of my favorite works in any subject. I really can't recommend this book high enough.

Book Review: Japan's Medieval Population

Wow. That's all I can say about the stunning amount of stats and figures that William Wayne Farris manages to stuff into Japan's Medieval Population: Famine, Fertility and Warfare In A Transformative Age (2006).

There are so many charts, tables and graphs that it's actually hard to read the text in the book. Speaking of the text, there is a lot of jargon here. Farris is incredibly intelligent and he really knows his stuff. This is definitely a book that shouldn't be picked up unless the reader has a good background in Japanese history.

Some of the stats presented in the book are really bewildering. Thankfully, Farris spends a good amount of time discussing how he has come to certain figures. The whole basis of the book is to discuss Farris' theory on what Japan's population was like in the period between 1150 and 1600. Farris uses many different techniques to formulate his theory:

• Farris draws his own conclusion by comparing and contrasting past works on Japan's population of this period. The most notable of these works is that of Akira Hayami.
• Land registers are used to find out how much land was arable and what exactly the land produced and how much of that particular item was produced.
• Death registers are used to measure, well, death. Farris really does a great job with these register. He breaks them down year by year, month by month, and even male to female.

Some specific areas of the book I found interesting included the discussion of the Kangi Famine from 1229-1232. This was a particularly devastating famine (Farris calls it the worse in Japan's history.) that wiped out a significant part of Japan's population.

I also enjoyed Farris' discussing of the Sengoku Period. (Of course) A set of tables discussing the frequency of military expeditions by both Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen were exquisite. Farris even spends a significant amount of time on case studies of both the Mori and the Takeda.

The one thing about a William Wayne Farris work is that the reader (or at least me) is always left with some unanswered questions. There were a few minor ones in this work as well. The major question mark I had was with the concept of "fukuro mochi." Apparently, these men went around kidnapping people to become a warrior's servant in the 13th century. Farris only spends one paragraph on the subject, and I can't find any other material on it. I don't know the prevalence of this practice or if it even existed. My best guess is that Farris took a literal translation of something that could simply mean "bag carrier." Farris says that these men were described as carrying "squirming people" in bags thrown over their shoulders. Hmmmmm......

3.5/5.0

I liked this book a lot. For something that I have little to no interest in, Farris does a decent job of grabbing my attention and keeping it. However, the jargon used in this book bordered on boring in certain sections. Also, the fukuro mochi segment just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.