Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan (Warfare and History)

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.