The Ancient Samurai

The birth and development of the samurai class brought to the history of Japan an element colorful in the extreme. This class of professional warriors endured for a millenium, coming to an end only with the Meiji Restoration of 1968. the progressive role the samurai played as rulers is surprising

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from the viewpoint of the world history. Without them, Japan would have remained as it was in ancient times, an easy target for colonization. The saumurai class transformed the anicent society into the feudal society of the Middle Ages and provided a bridge for the final tansformation to a modern nation-state.

Makoto Sugawara approaches the subject of the anicent samurai, the true samurai in that they believed in the justice of self-sacrifice for one's master, in realistic terms through an examination of their historical nature. He discusses where and how the samurai were born, the war between the Minamoto and Taira clans, the struggle betwwen the samurai and the nobility, and the rise and fall of the Kamakura Shogunate.

In his chornicle he interweaves incisive portraits of such figures as Otomo no Yakamochi, the adminstrator-poet who adumbrated the samurai class; Taira no Kiyomori, the leader of the clan whose sudden demise has been the theme of blind lute players for centures; Minamoto no Yoshitusne, whose panache and ambition brought his destruction; and Yoritomo, his cool, calculating brother who founded the Kamakura Shogunate. The Ancient Samurai is compelling reading.

Contents

1 Yakamochi and the Sakimori
2 The rise and fall of the Otomo Clan
3 The Otomo are ruined, The Manyoshu remains
4 Bow and horse and brave men
5 The Zenkunen revolt
6 Ronkokosho: the dream of the Bushi
7 Hachiman Taro Yoshiie and the Gosannen revolt
8 The eve of the Hogen Insurrection
9 The Hogen Insurrection
10 Death for the vanquished, bitterness for the victors
11 The Hieji Insurrection
12 Victory for the Taira Clan
13 Subdue the Taira!
14 Yoritomo mobilizes an army
15 Yoritomo marches into Kamakura
16 Kyoto is captured
17 The death of Yoshinaka
18 Ichi-no-tani
19 The cloistered emperor's resistance
20 Yashima
21 Dan-no-ura
22 A quiet withdrawal from Kyoto
23 Yoritomo's victory
24 Yoritomo visits the capital
25 Yoritomo's death
26 Toward the Jokyu Revolt
27 The reovolt of Go-Toba
28 Yasutoki and teh Joei Code
29 Samurai mores
30 The mystery of the Mongol Invasions
31 The divine wind that didn't blow
32 The demise of the ancient samurai
33 Treacherous usurpation of the powers of superiors

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