Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan

by Karl F. Friday

Tracing the evolution of state military institutions from the seventh to the twelfth centuries, this book challenges much of the received wisdom of Western scholarship on the origins and early development of warriors in Japan.

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Martial Arts, Japanese History

282 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

A specialist in classical and early medieval Japanese history, Karl Friday is professor emeritus in history at the University of Georgia.

Reviews

[Brendan Coster · Rating 5 out of 5]

While not quite has great has his handling of Taira Masakado in "The First Samurai" this earlier volume, "Hired Swords" was an excellent read. I have found both volume's by Friday to be extremely well written. There is something to be said about very clear, well worded prose; he's like the Hemingway of historians.

"Hired Swords" a fairly technical treatment of the rise of Heian period warriors/warefare and skirts edge between common/accessable history and scholarly/esoteric historiography. Basically he takes an obvious question, if ~1180 results of the gempei war inaugurated the rise of Warrior Japan, from where did all the mechanism for the creation of all those warriors come from, and when? With it comes a changing point of view of Heian period Japan and re-reviewing a "wasted and effeminate era."

Granted I've read a number of books post Hall 1960 and Friday 1992 that have pretty much accepted the 'updated' view of Early imperial Japan, so it did take away some of the lustre, I suppose if I had known I would have tried reading this one sooner. That aside, I'm still glad to have read the argument directly, and see how he arrived at the conclusions he did.

Anyways, 5 stars, though it's incomparable to "First Samuarai" his book on Taira Masakado, due to it's technical nature it's far more important to the historical narative in general.

[Axel Tojo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough yet easily available book on the transition from Heian to Kamakura Era in Japan. While "Hired Swords" doesn't feature the most flourishing language, neither is it boring, but a very well written text that will appeal to any scholar out there. The narrative is logical and well explained as are the various (contradicting) opinions around various historical events. Though all, but the most relevant, aspects of the Japanese society are left out these omissions are explained and several references given. This provides for a shorter and more focused study of the emergence of the warrior power in early Japan.

But therefore "Hired Swords" is not necessarily a book to pick up without any previous knowledge on the subject. I would recommend a previous familiarity with Japanese history for the reader to be able to put this book into context.

I wholly recommend this this book to anyone interested in Japanese (particularly martial) history. For a longer and even deeper study into the subject, read "Heavenly Warriors" by William Wayne Farris. For the martial arts enthusiast a brief overview is also provided in "Armed Martial Arts of Japan" by G. Cameron Hurst, otherwise mostly focused on the Edo-Showa periods.

[Nick Gaschler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karl F Friday is one of the most respected contemporary historians on pre-modern Japan. After reading George Sansom’s “A History of Japan to 1334” I wanted to briefly stop before moving on to the next volume and read Friday’s analysis on the rise of private warrior power during the Nara and Heian periods. And I am very glad to have done so for it was illuminating in a lot of ways. Friday essentially traces the Japanese military for the genesis of the ritsuryo system with the Yoro Codes of 702 to the Gempei War of the 1180s. Friday’s essential position is that contrary to the accepted notion that the Japanese Court left the provinces to their own devices militarily, the Court actually took an active role in promoting the rise of a private military class and retained much of their control over military matters across Japan until the Gempei War. It’s an interesting argument coming off of Sansom who argues the exact opposite in his first volume of Japanese history. However, after evaluating the argument as a whole, I found it rather convincing.

Friday bases this contention in many of the chronicles and sources which gives it a factual backing and gets extremely technical in his usage of terms of roles of the military men during the period. Starting with the ritsuryo, Friday works to trace the transition from conscripted peasantry into professional soldiery pointing out that the bolstering of the warrior class during the Heian period was due to the opportunities within the Court and aristocracy it afforded young provincial gentry officers. These individuals came to fill the space and worked on a private basis. The Court in turn realized that for efficiency and effectiveness, it would be better to maintain these warriors in a scuttled manner across the country than keep a peasant class conscripted for military matters. Thus came the rise of the private military power that was still employed and controlled by the Court in many instances. Friday sheds a ton of light on the military background for Japan’s medieval period. Everyone knows about the Samurai, but how did this class of warriors come to be? How did they assume power and control? What happened to the Imperial system? These are all basic questions asked by many who study medieval Japan and Friday goes a long way in answering them.

This book is well-written, but rather technical. It becomes easy to be bogged down by the terms and backgrounds for a lot of the concepts Friday plays with which makes it at times a little tough to get through, but generally the prose is straightforward, the tone is clear and the expertise on the subject is rather obvious, Friday knows what he is arguing and clearly knows quite a bit about the period.

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on subtle but far-reaching changes in Japan government from 8th Century 'til around 11th Century. In a similar way to the fall of the Roman Empire (later East and West Empires) where the introduction of mercenaries slowly brought the entire Roman world to the end and gave birth to numerous fiefdoms and warlords and finally to feudal system, privatization of military and police powers in Japan started with the goal of reducing overall cost of military and police infrastructure management but finally brought the end to the Japanese central government of the day.

The author manages to show how these changes started small but slowly crept in and finally completely changed the political and governmental organization of the Japan leading finally to medieval, feudal age where Samurai were true wielders of the power.

In a way, this can be treated as a cautionary tale for our own times.

Highly recommended.

[Adán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una excelente introducción al desarrollo de la casta samurai en el Heian, desde sus orígenes en el sistema militar Taiho hasta su desarrollo pleno en los siglos XI-XII. Quizás un fallo que le encuentro es que a veces cubre demasiado por encima algún aspecto particular, como todo el aparato de seguridad de la capital. Pero en general, una lectura obligada para los interesados en el desarrollo de los samurai.

[Paola Ferrero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, very concise and illustrative of the emergence of the Samurai era in early Japan. Has a lot of details, preferably read it if you have some background on the issue.

[Neosisani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not for beginners. It should come with a big disclaimer: "By buying this book you acknowledge that you know general history of Japan, along with dates of major rebellions, names of most of provinces, 1000 basic Japanese words, 50 most common Japanese names and surnames and layout of Japan's court hierarchy."

Apart from this barrier to entry, this book is a good read, maybe even a great read, just not for beginners.

[Ellis Amdur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dry – very dry – book, pure history without any swashbuckling, any inspiration or thrills. However, it is also something rare –an accurate academic account, based on primary sources, of how the warrior class in Japan actually developed – an account quite at variance to the popular history told in just about every other English text.

[Kakanier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lesenswert und erleuchtend.