The Real Musashi I: The Bushu Denraiki

Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584-1645) is the most revered and celebrated swordsman in Japanese history; unfortunately, our modern portrait of this folk hero is derived mainly from popular books, comics, and film, with little heed paid to the early denki, chronicles that faithfully recorded what was passed down by those who knew Musashi.

The Bukoden is one of the earliest such records still in existence. It was completed in 1755 by Toyoda Masanaga, senior retainer to the Nagaoka, a clan closely involved in the events of Musashi's later life. Masanaga's work ranks with the Bushu denraiki as the most reliable records of Musashi's life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, for the first time in two-and-a-half centuries, Masanaga's insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman is available to the English reader. It throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of especially Musashi's later life--his adoption of Iori, his return to Kyushu in 1634, and of course the gestation of his great work on the philosophy and art of Japanese swordsmanship, the Book of Five Rings.

As Mr. De Lange's earlier translation of the Bushu denraiki, this not another retelling or reinterpretation of the great swordsman's life, but a richly annotated rendition of an early and important text, available for the first time in English.

Yagyu Munenori was a great swordsman from the Nara Basin of Japan. During the great wars of the medieval era, his clan had first lost its castle, then its lands, until finally it was thrown upon the mercy of a local temple. Munenori was forced to become a ronin, a masterless samurai, destined to lead the life of a wanderer.

The Period of Unification in which Munenori lived was one of the great turning points in Japan's medieval era. After more than two centuries of civil strife Japan was finding its way back to peace and order under three successive rulers: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The final drive came in the fall of 1600, when Japan's eastern and western warlords faced each other in the Battle of Sekigahara. It was a decisive battle, in which each and every man who called himself a warrior faced the stark choice between the forces of division and those of unification.

Having lost everything, Munenori staked his future on the victory of the eastern forces. His is the story of the tragedy of civil war experienced at the personal level--a story of loyalty, of betrayal, of seemingly insurmountable setbacks. His courage in the face of overwhelming odds stands as moving testimony to the kind of perseverance and dedication that can have no equal in times of peace.

About the Famous Samurai Series: No history of Japan's medieval era can be complete without touching on the lives and exploits of those men who fought in its epic conflicts: the samurai. Of the thousands who took part in the major and minor battles of that turbulent period, a handful stood out; it was their martial skills that won the day and changed history. This series recounts their amazing but factual stories, and will include such famous warriors as Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, Ono Tadaaki, Itto Kagehisa, Nenami Jion, and Iizasa Ienao. Each volume includes many photos, maps, and diagrams, plus a chronology, glossary, and index

The medieval era of Japan was marked by a century of civil strife known as the Warring States period (1469-1573). The century prior had seen the sword replace the bow and arrow as the chief weapon of the samurai, thus setting the stage for this golden age of Japanese swordsmanship. Every man who called himself a warrior pledged his allegiance and life to a warlord and honed his martial skills to defend his patron to the death on the field of battle.

One such warrior was Kamiizumi Nobutsuna (1508-77), who played a role in the great rivalry between two of the most powerful warlords of the day. His is the story of the tragedy of civil war experienced at the personal level--a story of loyalty, of betrayal, of seemingly insurmountable setbacks. His courage in the face of overwhelming odds stands as moving testimony to the kind of perseverance and dedication that can have no equal in times of peace. Moreover, long after the fighting, the sword style and skills that saw him through the heat of battle lived on, and became a major school of the art of fencing during the Edo period, the Shinkage-ryu.

About the Famous Samurai Series: No history of Japan's medieval era can be complete without touching on the lives and exploits of those men who fought in its epic conflicts: the samurai. Of the thousands who took part in the major and minor battles of that turbulent period, a handful stood out; it was their martial skills that won the day and changed history. This series recounts their amazing but factual stories, and will include such famous warriors as Yagyu Munenori, Ono Tadaaki, Itto Kagehisa, Nenami Jion, and Iizasa Ienao. Each volume includes many photos, maps, and diagrams, plus a chronology, glossary, and index.

After more than two centuries of civil strife Japan was finding its way back to peace and order during the Period of Unification (1573-1615). The final drive came in the fall of 1600, when the massed eastern and western warlords faced each other in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara, in which every man who called himself a warrior faced the stark choice between the forces of division and those of unification.

One such warrior was Ono Jiroemon Tadaaki (1565-1628), a ronin, or masterless samurai, from the Kanto region who staked his future on the victory of the eastern forces. His is the story of the tragedy of civil war experienced at the personal level--a story of loyalty, of betrayal, of seemingly insurmountable setbacks. His courage in the face of overwhelming odds stands as moving testimony to the kind of perseverance and dedication that can have no equal in times of peace.

About the Famous Samurai Series: No history of Japan's medieval era can be complete without touching on the lives and exploits of those men who fought in its epic conflicts: the samurai. Of the thousands who took part in the major and minor battles of that turbulent period, a handful stood out; it was their martial skills that won the day and changed history. This series recounts their amazing but factual stories, and will include such famous warriors as Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, Yagyu Munenori, Itto Kagehisa, Nenami Jion, and Iizasa Ienao. Each volume includes many photos, maps, and diagrams, plus a chronology, glossary, and index.

From birth through to adolescence, the emphasis is on common and important paediatric problems. This is the only book that takes each symptom and walks you through history taking and physical examination step-by-step. Each section concludes with characteristics and features of the symptoms covered, allowing you to reach differential diagnoses in a logical, highly-structured way. A unique feature are the videos, accessible via your desktop edition, that accompany the book. Designed to enhance your clinical skills and help you in OSCEs, they show you how to examine children correctly.

This third edition has been substantially updated throughout and includes new chapters on cardiac conditions and social paediatrics. Beautifully presented, with many new illustrations and photographs, favourite features such as ‘at a glance’ and ‘clues to the diagnosis’ boxes are back, with new ‘red flag’ boxes to signal the crucial information you need. The self-assessment section allows you to check your knowledge and prepare for paediatrics exams.

Paediatrics and Child Health is the perfect resource for a course on paediatrics, and is accompanied by a FREE enhanced Wiley Desktop Edition - the interactive digital version of the book with downloadable text and images, highlighting and note-taking facilities, book-marking, cross-referencing, in-text searching, and linking to references and glossary terms.