Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Review of Samurai and Ninja by Antony Cummings

In the interests of full disclosure, I was given this book by the publisher for review purposes

Title: Samurai and Ninja
Written by : Antony Cummins
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Format: Softcover
Page Count: 222
Cover Price: $15.95 (USD)

    This book is a little more in my wheelhouse of knowledge and experience.  I've been reviewing a bunch of books that have spanned a wide spectrum of martial arts knowledge.  And by itself, that's okay, that's how people learn is by experiencing new things. That being said, samurai is a bit more of what I'm used to, especially since I've practiced Japanese martial arts for the last 15 years or so.  Ninjas...I enjoy a good ninja occasionally.  

Content 

  This book is broken in half.  The first half talks about the samurai, who and what they were, while the second half describes the ninja from the ninja's point of view.  The main goal of this book seems to be to dispel the myths and legends that have grown up around both the samurai and the ninja, almost to the point of being caricatures.
    When dealing with the ideas of the samurai, the author, Mr. Cummins wants you to see the samurai more as human beings, albeit very well trained and deadly human beings.  He breaks from the ideas of idealized samurai values, since most of those values were derived after the samurai were an active military class (as we discussed in Episode XXVI of the martial thoughts podcast).
    The ninja half of the books deals more with dispelling the mystique of the ninja.  He starts off this section by demonstrating what ninja were and weren't.  The author gives many examples of how some ninja were openly employed as soldiers, and were even working as "anti-ninja" to the other general's ninja.  He also goes through specific translated examples of how ninja accomplished their work including information on some of their tools and chemical concoctions that they made.


Pros


    One of the things that immediately jumps off the page to me is the enthusiasm of Mr. Cummins.  If you've ever watched his videos or talked with him, you can very readily see how much he likes ninja and the true ninja ideas, not the mythology of the ninja.  I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Cummins on Episode XX of the Martial Thoughts Podcast, and I can't help but read the book and hear his voice and accent telling me the information.  It is a very easily accessible book, which is honest in its dismissal of the way the general public thinks of these people.


Cons

    
    I don't really have any negative aspects to talk about except, none of this is really new information, but it is the first place I've seen all this in one place.  It is a good collection of mythbusting.


Conclusion

    This is generally a good book, especially for someone whose just starting their knowledge base in Japanese warrior cultures.  If you are new to reading about samurai or ninja, this is definitely your book.  It gives you an excellent foundation to build further information on top of.  As such, I'm going to give this book a 4 out of 5 ninja stars (yes I realize the irony, that they didn't use ninja stars).  I enjoyed the book, it has a lot of good information, and I appreciate the enthusiastic tenor of the book.  It was just a little too basic for my personal taste.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Shownotes for Episode XXVIII-Every Which Way But Podcast

Download the Podcast HERE


Link
Video
Contact
Buying
Correction

Intro:  Theme from "Enter the Dragon" by Lalo Schifri


Introduction:

  Recorded On: April 19th, 2015
  iTunes review by AnarchoPunk78


Interlude Music: Return of the Silent Stranger by Rob Zombie


News





  
Interlude Music: Phat Planet by L

Interview: Jerry Liu
  Jerry Liu Films Exploring Martial Arts

Interlude Music: Jerry was a Racecar Drive by Primus

This Week in Martial Arts:  April 25th, 1961
  Yojimbo was released

Contact Information
Twitter Acount: @martialthoughts
Email: martialthoughts@gmail.com
Atemicast Youtube Channel
www.thinkingmartial.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/martialthoughts

Outro Music: Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Shownotes Episode XXVII-Once Upon a Podcast...


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Download the Podcast HERE


Link
Video
Contact
Buying
Correction

Intro:  Theme from "Enter the Dragon" by Lalo Schifri

Introduction:
  Recorded On: April 11th, 2015
  Bushido
  Request for iTunes review

Interlude Music: Woman from Tokyo by Deep Purple

Interview: Nate Ledbetter
  The Samurai Archives Podcast
  Sengoku Period
  Sun Tzu
  Battle of Sekigahara
  Ozaki
  Tokugawa Ieyasu
  Battle of Nagashino
  Jukenjutsu Jukendo
  Izanami and Izanagi
  Gempei Wars
  Minamoto
  Game of Thrones
  Samurai Behaving Badly
  Samurai/Peasants/Artisans/Merchants...and Eta (Henin)
  Hagakurae by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
  Yoshida Shoin
  Admiral Perry
  Meiji Restoration
  Inventing the Way of the Samurai - Oleg Benish
  Bushido:The Soul of Japan - Nitobe Inazo
  State of War Thomas Conlin
  (Akira) Kurosawa
  Kagemusha
  Owl's Castle
  www.samuraiarchives.com
  www.samuraipodcast.com
  www.forums.samurai-archives.com
  @samuraiarchives
  www.facebook.com/samuraiarchives
  www.sengokufieldmanual.com

Interlude Music: Champion by Hammerfall

This Week in Martial Arts:  April 11th, 1955
  General Choi assembles the 5 Korean Masters to create Taekwondo
Contact Information
Twitter Acount: @martialthoughts
Email: martialthoughts@gmail.com
Atemicast Youtube Channel
www.thinkingmartial.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/martialthoughts

Outro Music: Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna