Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan Hardcover – August 31, 2009

40 years myself and I consider this the one and only book true to the history and development of martial art history along with some matarial from Maasaki Hatsumi and Don Drager. DOnt listen to the ignorant people that disagree, th Martial Art World is the most corrupt organization in the hstory of mankind because of the age of commercialization. The Dan system, Jigoro Kano , the Gracies have ruines the auhtnticity by misinterpreting history or misusing Japanese terminology. This is the only book you needHeres an example of a review with no clue42 of 56 people found the following review helpful..................duhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!1.0 out of 5 stars An Unreliable Book Containing Fantasy MaterialI am writing this review, because people are erroneously using this book as a source for research into pre-modern Japan. It should not be used for this purpose. It belongs to a genre which I call "gosh golly" books. I will proceed to comments relating to previous revFIRST OF ALL THIS WOMAN IS THE ONE ASSUMING- THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT THE HISTORY OF JAPAN OR CULTURE OR EVEN SAMURAI, ITS ABOUT THE FIGHTING METHODS AND WEAPONS OF THE SAMURAI ...DUH!!! OF COURSE WE DONT WANT WOODBLOCK- OSCAR RATTI LINE DRAWING SERVE AS EXMPLES OF THE TECHNIQUES AND DETAILS OF THE WEAPONS USED THAT WOULD NEVER BE IN WOOD BLOCK ANOTHER .....DUHHHH!!!! BEING AN EXPRT IN THE FIEDL OF MARTIAL ARTS- THIS WOMAN HAS NO CLUE AND IS AN IDIOT- THIS IS ABOUT BUJUTSU AND BUDO ONLY- NOT FOOD , NOT ART NOT POLITICS - TO ASSUME PEOPLE BUY IT FORTHAT REASON IS RETARDED

This book is great! I was skimming through martail arts books and came across this masterpiece. It reads like a textbook on samurai history, weapons, armor, and beliefs. There are also the wonderful illustrations by Oscar Ratti which make the book so much more interactive and fun to read. The language is not hard to follow and understand, and you can basically flip to any page and just start reading without getting too lost, although I highly recommend reading it straight through. Another great martial arts book by Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook is "Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere". I'm a novice in martial arts and have only begun my journey in finding informative martial arts books. This book is by far the most informative I have come across. In a nutshell, if you are very interested in the samurai and their history and you would like to learn a lot about them, "Secrets of the Samurai" is the book to own.

English is not my native language and I find this book really not easy to read. Between the vocabulary used and the way the sentence are structured i - at the moment - have little pleasure reading this book. I sometimes need to reread few times some paragraph to understand the point the author is trying to make. I am sure the book has some historical related value but I was expecting more a novel like written book rather than statements resulting from a long hours in a library. Plus some reviews question the veracity of the historical value... I thought I would devour this book, and I'm not...

I was required to write a book review for college, so I chose this book. It is not really my knid of book, as it is quite detailed in description of all aspects of the samurai. For what it is, it is quite good, very informative and interesting topics, just more in-depth than what I was looking for.

If you're interested in the Samurai and want detail rather than pretty pictures, then you need this book. If you'd rather have pretty pictures buy the Stephen Turnbull coffee table books. This book is an impeccably researched insight into the martial culture of feudal Japan that needs re-reading.

An outstanding and highly detailed examination of all of the budo arts of ancient Japan. The author is both exhaustive in his detail and yet possesses an easy to read writing style. Highly recommended.

15 cents for a used book? And a book that goes over America's interest in the main highlights of older, Japanese culture with the samurai and ninja? That's a steal. If anybody has any legitimate interest of Japan's earlier era outside of manga, anime, and fiction, I would highly suggest this book.

This book is not only agreat take on the history of martial arts in Japan but Oscar Ratti is a phenomenal illustratore that deserves to praised and remebered. I have bought several other books featuring his illustrations after reading this book.

I purchased this book on reccomendation from my Sensei. I am currently studying for my first Dan Black Belt in Jujitsu and on asking my Sensei where I could find out more information about the art I am studying, where it comes from, why we study certian Kata's and the traditional nature of Jujitsu, he pointed me in this book's direction. It is relativley easy to read. Having no knowledge of Martial Arts may be a hinderance to some readers, but being familiar with Japanese terms already, I find it very easy to read. I haven't as yet got to the end as I am taking my time and making lots of notes for my own study purposes, but so far it's very useful. The structures of Feudal Japan are very easy to learn about as the authors write in such a way that makes quite a complicated process very easy to read. There are lots of pictures and diagrams which bring armoury and weapons to life. I am very impressed so far and its helping me enormously in my eneadvour to learn more about where, why and how we have the version of Martial arts in Britian that we have today. Highly reccomended.

My son loved this gift. The illustrations are fabulous as is the writing. A real gem of a find

Everything as expected, Excellent choice, great purchase.

this book is not only excellently written and well thought out,but very educational as well-a must for those who love Samurai history.

Um livro fantástico. Explica desde os períodos da história do Japão, as classes que compunham a sociedade, os tipos de guerreiros, as técnicas e armas utilizadas. Muito bom. Possui muito texto, muita informação. Recheado de desenhos bem interessantes que auxiliam no entendimento. Livro bem completo.