Overview

Over the decades the reputation of the samurai has grown to mythical proportions, partly owing to such modern retellings as James Clavell's Shogun and Kurasawa's The Seven Samurai. Although the picture of a superhuman, sword yielding fighting machisne has some basis in truth, this swashbuckling image is only part of the samurai story. In Legends of the Samurai, Sato confronts both the history and the legend of the samurai, untangling the two to present an authentic picture of these legendary warriors. Through his masterful translations of authentic samurai tales, Hiroaki Sato demonstrates the changing ethos of the Japanese warrior: the samurai transforms through the centuries from a personal attendant to a warrior to a political leader and finally into a legend. This fascinating look at Japanese history as seen through the evolution of the samurai warrior, with its exceptional combination of translation and commentary, is an important contribution to the subject and will stand as the ultimate authority on the samurai for years to come.

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9780879516192

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Reviews

'Well translated and elegantly produced work' - James Kirkup, Times Literary Supplement - 'Demonstrates how the courage and mindfulness of the warrior can become stages on the path to enlightenment, and how an activity as potentially bloody as swordplay can be a humane, exacting art' - San Francisco Chronicle - 'Very rewarding' - The Japan Times

Author Information

Hiroaki Sato has published twenty four books, sixteen of which are translations of Japanese poetry into English. He has won the PEN American Centre translation prize. He is also a frequent lecturer on Japanese poetry.

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