Combines material previously published as Warrior 29: Ashigaru 1467-1649, Warrior 64: Ninja AD 1460-1650, Warrior 70: Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949-1603, with a new section on Samurai, new images, and a new introduction and conclusion. Driven by strict codes of honour and bound by deep allegiances of rank, family or religion, the elite warriors of medieval Japan were bold fighters, loyal comrades and deadly enemies, With rare material from Japanese sources and lavish artwork and photography, this book examines the military lives, beliefs and battle experience of four formidable warrior types – samurai, ninja, warrior monk and ashigaru foot soldier – resulting in a highly authoritative account of Japan's warrior elite.

Driven by strict codes of honour and bound by deep allegiances of rank, family or religion, the elite warriors of medieval Japan were bold fighters, loyal comrades and deadly enemies. With rare material from Japanese sources and lavish artwork and photography, this book examines the military lives, beliefs and battle experience of four formidable warrior types – samurai, ninja, warrior monk and ashigaru foot soldier – resulting in a highly authoritative account of Japan's warrior elite. Warriors of Medieval Japan combines material previously published as Warrior 29: Ashigaru 1467-1649, Warrior 64: Ninja AD 1460-1650, and Warrior 70: Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949-1603, with an added section on Samurai, additional images, and an updated introduction and conclusion.

A leading cultural historian of premodern Japan draws a rich portrait of the emerging samurai culture as it is portrayed in gunki-mono, or war tales, examining eight major works spanning the mid-tenth to late fourteenth centuries. Although many of the major war tales have been translated into English, Warriors of Japan is the first book-length study of the tales and their place in Japanese history. The war tales are one of the most important sources of knowledge about Japan's premodern warriors, revealing much about the medieval psyche and the evolving perceptions of warriors, warfare, and warrior customs.

The nation state as we know it is a mere four or five hundred years old. Remarkably, a central government with vast territorial control emerged in Japan at around the same time as it did in Europe, through the process of mobilizing fiscal resources and manpower for bloody wars between the 16th and 17th centuries. This book, which brings Japan's case into conversation with the history of state building in Europe, points to similar factors that were present in both places: population growth eroded clientelistic relationships between farmers and estate holders, creating conditions for intense competition over territory; and in the ensuing instability and violence, farmers were driven to make Hobbesian bargains of taxes in exchange for physical security.

Karl Friday, an internationally recognised authority on Japanese warriors, provides the first comprehensive study of the topic to be published in English. This work incorporates nearly twenty years of on-going research and draws on both new readings of primary sources and the most recent secondary scholarship. It overturns many of the stereotypes that have dominated views of the period. Friday analyzes Heian -, Kamakura- and Nambokucho-period warfare from five thematic angles. He examines the principles that justified armed conflict, the mechanisms used to raise and deploy armed forces, the weapons available to early medieval warriors, the means by which they obtained them, and the techniques and customs of battle. A thorough, accessible and informative review, this study highlights the complex casual relationships among the structures and sources of early medieval political power, technology, and the conduct of war.

This pioneering collection of 15 essays argues that Japan's medieval age began in the 14th century rather than the 12th, and marks the beginning of a fundamentally new debate about how Japan's lengthy classical period finally ended.