Gaki N Me If you love to talk about the world, love Asian idols, this is the place.

I was researching on samurais this weekend because I wanted to write a samurai story and after around 10 books, I learnt a lot.

From The way of Kendo & Kenjitsu, Soul of the Samurai by Darrell Max Craig, I learnt that samurais truly test their katana (swords) in the old days by swooping it down on the neck of convicted prisoners.  Usually two to three times is enough but some swords have inscriptions that reads, "Cut through five bodies with one stroke by ____".

The book mentioned Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) who wrote the famous A Book of Five Rings which is as important as The Art of War in China by Sun Tzu and it's about strategy both in life and in the way of the sword.  Musashi was famous because he managed to win and live through 60 duels before the age of 30.  He said that if you are concerned only with the strenght of the sword by trying to cut unreasonably hard, it would not work.  When you cross swords with an enemy, don't think about cutting him strongly or weakly but just think of cutting and killing him.  

I read that in World War II, there are reports of samurais cutting through machine gun barrels.  The author said he has seen footage of a Japanese training showing an officer cutting through a 30-caliber air-cooled U.S. machine gun with a samurai sword.  He also mentioned that in a firing practice, the barrel got so hot he had to use asbestos gloves to unscrew it and on close examination, the barrel had actually warped.  Interesting book.

The Samurai by Shusaku Endo was a decent book about a samurai being sent overseas to Europe to bring back Christianity but because of the change of times and regime, by the time he returned to Japan, he was being persecuted.

But most enjoyable of all was the mystery novel Death at the Crossroads by Dale Furutani.  The author helped me understand a lot of the customs during that Edo period just before the Tokugawa regime came into existence to unify Japan for 250 years.  As a result of lesser opposition, there were fewer lords and therefore samurais were scrambling to seek an employer.  Ronins, the masterless samurais, wandered around villages and would be available for hire.  The story was of such a ronin in this period around 1602.  I learnt so much about the Japanese words and habits and tradition of the time.  A page turner too if you are into Asian stuff.  Here is a review and here is the reason why Dale Furutani wrote it.  Highly recommended.