Samurai Novels

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I love Samurai. I love the warrior culture, the awesome swords, the clothes; all that stuff. So, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for some novels about Samurai. The only one I've read is Shogun, which I enjoyed, though it was too long, and I found the romance way too sentimental.

I'm not looking for "classics," but, of course, not junk, either. Any recommendations would be awesome!

[SparkRevolt]

I read Ronin by William Dale Jennings. It was very good but rather short. Description from Amazon:
The violence of twelfth-century Japan explodes in this half-legendary, half-true story of a violent ronin who becomes a folk hero. Told with humor and irony, The Ronin ranges from the pleasantly colloquial to the brutally satiric. This brief tale will shock, confound and ultimately inspire readers.

[Dark Muse]

Would a really good fantasy novel work that while not historically about Samurai, draws from the Samurai culture and is placed in an Eastern setting and includes many of those elements which you said you liked about Samurai?

If so than I am reading this really good two part series right now.

The Initiate Brother and Gatherer of Clouds by Sean Russell

[Calidore]

Easy one: Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. It's about the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi; however, rather than being a dry biography, it's a historical novel that was written as entertainment and originally serialized in a leading newspaper of the time. In other words, rather than being Japan's Gone with the Wind as it's marketed, it's actually the Japanese equivalent of a Dumas novel. Highly recommended.

It's also been adapted into a movie trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune and available from Criterion, as well as a 33-and-counting volume manga. I haven't read the manga myself, but I've seen the movies, and they're pretty good too.

[Calidore]

Would a really good fantasy novel work that while not historically about Samurai, draws from the Samurai culture and is placed in an Eastern setting and includes many of those elements which you said you liked about Samurai?

If so than I am reading this really good two part series right now.

The Initiate Brother and Gatherer of Clouds by Sean Russell

I got those from my dad but haven't read them yet. Are they Japanese-based? I'd gotten the impression they were more Chinese in flavor.

[Dark Muse]

I got those from my dad but haven't read them yet. Are they Japanese-based? I'd gotten the impression they were more Chinese in flavor.

There seems to be a co-mingling of both

[JBI]

Do you mean you want to read Buddhist scriptures? haha. Samurai is hardly as swashbuckling as you make it seem from historical perspectives.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I prefer the swashbuckling stuff, historical accuracy be damned.

Thanks for the recs, all going on my wish-list, and that includes the two you recommended Dark Muse. Sounds good.

[OrphanPip]

Do you mean you want to read Buddhist scriptures? haha. Samurai is hardly as swashbuckling as you make it seem from historical perspectives.

I think he's more interested in something like Jidaigeki period dramas, something more along the lines of what Walter Scott is to Medieval European chivalry. I know it's a big popular genre in Japan, though I'm only really familiar with the movies.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I think he's more interested in something like Jidaigeki period dramas, something more along the lines of what Walter Scott is to Medieval European chivalry. I know it's a big popular genre in Japan, though I'm only really familiar with the movies.

Pretty much. :nod:

[billl]

The only one I've read is The 47 Ronin (http://www.amazon.com/Forty-Seven-Ronin-Story-John-Allyn/dp/0804801967/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307416199&sr=1-4) which is based on a real event.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty-seven_Ronin

I don't want to spoil anything (and maybe you shouldn't read past the first paragraph of the wikipedia link...) but it is a pretty quick read (complete opposite of Shogun, I'd think), is an excellent account of Bushido in action, but doesn't exactly have people getting sliced up on each page. The writer of the book at the Amazon link is an English (?) guy basically just retelling a very famous Samurai tale (based on a real event). So, the book has the bonus feature of actually being a little educational.

Again, it's a quick read, and is a story that Japanese have been reading and watching for more than 200 years (there's a classic Kabuki version and Wikipedia says there were 10 different TV productions of it from 1997-2007). Actually, if you're a fan of the genre, you might very well have already encountered this story.

[Calidore]

I've seen the two-part 1940s film. It's been accurately described as four hours of people sitting on mats talking, but for some reason I was never bored. I wish the DVD had had a commentary, because it's one of those movies where you feel like you're missing a lot. Maybe Criterion will pick it up someday.

If you've never read the Lone Wolf and Cub manga, it's a fascinating exploration of various aspects of bushido. The 28 volumes are worth every penny IMO, as are the six films.

[Leland Gaunt]

The recommendations for Musashi are well deserved, but Yoshikawa's other novel Taiko, doesn't deserve the same, in my opinion. I thought it might be interesting because I was told that he did not demonize Nobunaga like a lot of Japan does. I stopped reading it around the 4th time someone was literally overwhelmed by their awe for Hideyoshi.

On a sidenote, not only is Shogun's love story overly sentimental but it is false to the culture of the time.


Samurai is hardly as swashbuckling as you make it seem from historical perspectives.
I hate to get picky, but don't you think that the swashbuckling is the one thing they didn't overly romanticize, about Sengoku Jidai? I wholeheartedly agree though that devotion to bushido was exaggerated and that Edo samurai weren't at all like they are commonly portrayed.