Harald Kleinschmidt is Professor and Dean of the Doctoral Program in International Political Economy, University of Tsukuba, Japan.

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• Contents: Series preface; Introduction; Part I Feudalism in Japan: Feudalism in Japan - a reassessment, John Whitney Hall. Part II The Changing Socio-Cultural Context of Miltary Organization: Teeth and claws: provincial warriors and the Heian court, Karl Friday; The formation of bushi bands (bushidan), Susumu Ishii; Women and inheritance in Japan's early warrior society, Hitomi Tonomura; 'Hideyoshi's peace' and the transformation of the Bushi class, Shosaku Takagi; The increasing poverty of the samurai in Tokugawa Japan, 1600-1868, Kozo Yamamura. Part III Aesthetics and Ethics of War: From Heiho to Bugei: the emergence of the martial arts in Tokugawa Japan, George Cameron Hurst III; Kabala in motion: kata and pattern practice in the traditional bugei, Karl F. Friday. Part IV Changing Patterns of Warfare: Event and process in the founding of Japan: the horserider theory in archaeological perspective, Walter Edwards; The introduction of the art of mounted archery into Japan, Reinier H. Hesslink; The sea battle of Dannoura, W.R. Wilson; The Heike Monogatarai and the Japanese warrior ethic, Kenneth Dean Butler; The nature of warfare in 14th-century Japan: the record of Nomoto Tomoyuki, Thomas Conlan; Samurai in passage: the transformation of the 16th-century Kanto, Michael P. Birt; 'Shorthand of the Samurai': the use of heraldry in the armies of 16th-century Japan, S.R. Turnbull. Part V Weapons: Japanese archery and archers, E. Gilbertson; Arms and men: 14th-century Japanese swordsmanship illustrated by skeletons from Zaimokuza near Kamakura Japan, Myra Shackley; Chinese influence on Japanese siege warfare, Stephen Turnbull; Japanese castles, P.M. Clayburn; Index.