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Category: martial arts

Culture/martial arts/Memory/Military/Nationalism/Pedagogy/大正/明治/昭和

Reading Note: Oleg Benesch, “Inventing the way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan”

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Jonathan Dresner / 5 Comments

Before I praise Benesch’s book, a complaint: Oxford UP pricing is absurd. Now that’s not unusual for academic hardbacks, monographs that go to libra...

China-Japan/Japan/martial arts/Military/Propaganda

Heroes and big swords in Shanghai

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Alan Baumler / 0 Comment

The 1932 Shanghai War produced its share of heroes, since any war needs heroes, both for domestic and foreign consumption. I just found two stories of a Chinese...

Academia/Anecdotes/Books and Articles/English/Japan/martial arts/Medieval/War/明治/江戸

Seppuku: A Samurai Suicide Miscellany

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Jonathan Dresner / 0 Comment

For a little entertainment this Thanksgiving, I read Andrew Rankin’s Seppuku: A History of Samurai Suicide (Kodansha, 2011).1 Since I’m teaching bot...

Cultural/Foreign Views/Historiography/Japan/martial arts/Medieval/江戸

The Three Stages of Ninja

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Jonathan Dresner / 2 Comments

The ninja question came up last week in my Samurai class — we were talking about possible writing projects — so I had to do my ninja spiel, which ha...

Academia/Books and Articles/Film/Foreign Views/Japan/martial arts/Memory/Pedagogy/幕末/江戸

Turnbull Book on Ako

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Jonathan Dresner / 5 Comments

Stephen Turnbull, one of the most prolific and controversial writers on Japanese military history, has written a book on the 47 Samurai incident. The Samurai Ar...

Books and Articles/Cultural/English/Foreign Views/Historiography/Japan/martial arts/Pedagogy/Popular Culture/US-Japan/江戸

Ninjas at Night, Dragons at Dawn: Magic Tree House does Japanese History

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Jonathan Dresner / 2 Comments

Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House series is intended to educate and entertain by taking its protagonists to different times and places, real and mythic...

Books and Articles/English/Foreign Views/globalization/Historiography/Japan/martial arts/US-Japan/安土桃山/江戸

Young Samurai: Way of the Dragon and the Battle of Osaka

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Jonathan Dresner / 0 Comment

The third installment of Chris Bradford’s Young Samurai series shifts modes mid-book, when the action moves from the original Harry Potter-esque bildungsr...

Books and Articles/English/Foreign Views/globalization/Japan/martial arts/Popular Culture/江戸

Young Samurai: The Way of the Sword: Ancient Culture, Modern Politics

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Jonathan Dresner / 0 Comment

Reading The Way of the Sword while listening to the “Restoring Honor” event, I began to wonder if our current shift to discourses of honor and warri...

Anecdotes/Books and Articles/Foreign Views/Japan/martial arts

Young Samurai II: A Bad Start

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Jonathan Dresner / 5 Comments

I picked up the second installment of the Young Samurai at the library today. I was thinking about starting it, and looked at the back inside dust cover, where ...

Books and Articles/Cultural/English/Foreign Views/Historiography/Japan/martial arts/Memory/US-Japan/江戸

Judge Ooka’s Sidekick, part two: The Ghost In the Tokaido Inn and In Darkness, Death

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Jonathan Dresner / 1 Comment

After reading the last two installments in the Hooblers’ samurai detective series, I got hold of the first two. There are still two I have not read, obvio...

Art/Japan/martial arts/Medieval/Pedagogy

Mystery Circles on Early Armor

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Jonathan Dresner / 5 Comments

What is that circular disk which early medieval samurai wear over their swords? Is it a weight, to keep it from flopping around while horseriding? That’s ...

Books and Articles/English/Foreign Views/Gender/General/globalization/Historiography/Japan/Journalism & Mass Media/martial arts/Popular Culture/江戸

Young Samurai Book One (of at least three): Harry Potter Bushido

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Jonathan Dresner / 11 Comments

I almost didn’t check Chris Bradford‘s Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior out of the library when I saw it, but some instinct told me that it was...

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