Concerning feudal Japan

[SephirothVII]

by george...i think you may be right...when a katana is in its sheath blade down it ever-so-slightly dulls against the inside of the sheath...which isnt good...and may explain why his sword was always being broken :-p

[Bathhousea]

To answer opaj's upside down sheath question, yes, it is true that in the earllier images of Yori, he's wearing his sword incorrectly, even treating the blade disrespectfully. In the later comics I've made sure he treats his sword as lovingly as a samurai should (aside from the sholw shattering it to pieces thing, which was not hte result of him treating his sword poorly, just the fact that is was a poor sword to begin with). Yori now always wears his sword with the blade facing up. ANYway, to answer the second question, well, actually it was the first question, ok, to answer Danya's question, I know of two great books about fuedal japan. Shogun, by James Clavell, is a fictional novel about an english sailor who gets marooned in Japan and is swept up in a daimyo power struggle. James Clavell lived and studied a great deal of asian culture and history before writing the book, so you can be assured that it's got plenty of swifty facts along with a highly addictive fiction story to go with it. Another swifty book full of straight out facts about samurai is the book Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan, which covers the history and ways of the samurai from their creation to their end. It's also full of swifty little illustrations.

As website go,

http://www.japan-guide.com/

it doesn't get much better than that.

[Bathhousea]

wow, such hatred I can feel seething from you, opaj!! from all the material I've read about 1600's feudal japan, Shogun seems to be very accurate culturally. I'm well aware the events and characters are fictional, since the book should be taking place around the time of the rise of Nobunaga, but it's just a good story that keeps moving. I had a hard time putting it down when I was reading it. As for the crudity...there are far cruder things out there, that's for sure

And as for the mis translated japanese phrases... I'm no Japanese linguist so I don't know if they're right or wrong, but as long as they're close enough and the mistranlations aren't impeding on plot or causing the reader mass confusion it's really not something to get upset about. My only real complaint about the book was that the ending is too abrupt and doesn't resolve enough...

But you recommend Miyamoto Musashi over Shogun. Is there a book out about Musashi's life or are you reffering to his book The Five Rings? I never read it but I considered buying the new translated version off amazon.