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Rating: 
Summary: a bang
Review: I made the mistake of beginning to read this book before I went to bed. I read long into the night, unable to put it down.Perrin packs a great deal of information into this thin volume, livened with quiet humor. This book is an excellent complement to Sword and Chrysanthemum, because he deals with aspects of Japanese culture that Benedict did not. Perhaps in the final pages he sings praises a bit too loud, looking at feudal Japan as close to an ideal society. That was an age in which peasants took it for granted that Mother would be led into the forest and abandoned when food ran out. Life may have been peaches and cream for the upper classes, but Japan was certainly not a land in which it was 'impossible to discern misery.' I urge anybody with an interest in Japan, or in cultural evolution, to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Too slim
Review: I picked this book up for my husband, the medieval weapons enthusiast, but I found myself riveted by the story it told and read it first before passing it along to him. Not knowing much about Japanese history pre-World War II and what I'd gleaned off of looking at woodblock prints, this was a great, quick introduction to the major eras and military conflicts of the 1500-1900s. This is not just a book about the Japanese and firearms. It's also about the long struggle of Japan to limit the influence and ideas of foreigners. From the Dutch traders being limited to living on a tiny island and only allowed to make one annual trip to the mainland, to the outlawing of Christianity and indifferance to improvements in firearms technology, it's all riveting stuff. Sometimes the tone of the book is a bit breezy, keeping it from being too serious an academic work, but I found the author's style easy to read and enjoyable. This from a person with no real interest in guns! If you are interested in understanding traditional Japanese culture, another book to try is "Lost Japan" by Alex Kerr. Absolutely nothing to do with artillery, but covers the rest of the fine arts of Japan.
Rating:
Summary: Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle
Review: I read Noel Perrin's little book soon after it was first published in a different imprint, but returned to it around the time of the Gulf War in 1991 to remind myself of a few things that Professor Perrin wanted us to think about. I think many readers may mistake it as primarily a book about Japanese history or about the Tokugawa clan who banned guns mainly to maintain civil order in what was a genuine police state, one they were to rule for 250 years. Though a long-time student of Japan, I shudder to think of someone like Saddam Hussein picking up a few lessons from the Tokugawas. Perrin's point, though, was peace. He wrote this book, I believe, because he was a passionate anti-nuclear activist and advocate of non-proliferation. In talking to friends, he learned how the Tokugawas had - perhaps for the only time in human history - decided to give up a weapon of mass destruction, and they did it in part because they saw it as an evil, and a threat to their martial society. Samurai were expected to live and die by the sword, though the warlords who fought it out for control of Japan in the war-filled years around 1600 that brought the Tokugawas to power were perfectly happy to use massed muskets in battles that created more carnage than would be seen on any battlefield until the Napoleonic wars. At the end of the day, Perrin's assessment of the moral purpose of the Shoguns who banned the gun is probably naive, these were power hungry and paranoid dictators who sought to prevent massed musket attacks against themselves. But the book provides a fascinating vignette of how a society reordered itself and learned to live in peace for 250 years. I consider the book one of the more elegant essays on the confrontation in mankind's history between our inexorable bloodlust, and our yearning for something more sublime.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, fresh look at Tokugawa Japan
Review: Perrin's book has a great focus: the Japanese gun. Usually, one associates the sword with Japanese martial arts. Here, Perrin explains that the Japanese not only adopted the arbusque but improved on it to a point where it became too efficient a means to kill the enemy. Ironically, the Tokugawa shoguns had to eliminate it to preserve the Pax Tokugawa that would run for 250+ years. The book is easy to read: he approaches the material from a variety of angles (source material from Japan, modern comparisons of contemporary European nations as well as contemporary comparisons by visitors back in the 17th and 18th centuries). It is also well documented -- the list of notes alone provides one with a shopping list of future reading. Overall though, I felt the book failed to expand and build its argument -- it just kept repeating itself chapter after chapter. Another complaint I have is that, looking at the Japanese sources, Perrin tended to rely upon WWII Admiral Seiho Arima's _Kaho no kigen sono denryu_. Arima's research into pre-Meiji gunsmithing does seem like a good source of material, but one wonders if there were other sources of scholarship to include. Otherwise, Perrin relies a lot on Western scholarship. A final complaint about the book is the reproduction of the artwork. The black and white reproductions at times are fuzzy. A close-up instead of the full work at times might have been more helpful for the reader. Although the book is written in a light scholarly tone which anyone can read, if it were not for its tight focus on its subject matter I would not recommend the book. Its value lies in its exploration of a subject which goes overlooked in studies of Japanese culture. A half-hearted recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, fresh look at Tokugawa Japan
Review: Perrin's book has a great focus: the Japanese gun. Usually, one associates the sword with Japanese martial arts. Here, Perrin explains that the Japanese not only adopted the arbusque but improved on it to a point where it became too efficient a means to kill the enemy. Ironically, the Tokugawa shoguns had to eliminate it to preserve the Pax Tokugawa that would run for 250+ years. The book is easy to read: he approaches the material from a variety of angles (source material from Japan, modern comparisons of contemporary European nations as well as contemporary comparisons by visitors back in the 17th and 18th centuries). It is also well documented -- the list of notes alone provides one with a shopping list of future reading. Overall though, I felt the book failed to expand and build its argument -- it just kept repeating itself chapter after chapter. Another complaint I have is that, looking at the Japanese sources, Perrin tended to rely upon WWII Admiral Seiho Arima's _Kaho no kigen sono denryu_. Arima's research into pre-Meiji gunsmithing does seem like a good source of material, but one wonders if there were other sources of scholarship to include. Otherwise, Perrin relies a lot on Western scholarship. A final complaint about the book is the reproduction of the artwork. The black and white reproductions at times are fuzzy. A close-up instead of the full work at times might have been more helpful for the reader. Although the book is written in a light scholarly tone which anyone can read, if it were not for its tight focus on its subject matter I would not recommend the book. Its value lies in its exploration of a subject which goes overlooked in studies of Japanese culture. A half-hearted recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: A Meaningful Book
Review: The story of going from one of the world's most armed nations to one where guns became rare is a fascinating one. I learned a lot about older Japan along the way. But that is not the main point. Perrin shows us that we need not become the slaves of every technology that comes along. Instead of being dominated by them, we can control and civilize them. This is a lesson that is badly needed today. It is needed if we are to make the world a safe and viable place for our children by eliminating weapons of mass desturction and reducing environmental damage.
Rating:
Summary: Swords, then guns, then back to swords
Review: This book is packed with grteat information. Even being written 1979, it still relates to present day problems and war technologies. The progression from swords to guns and then back to swords is very well written and documented, and the illustrations help to give even more of an insight into the thoughts of that time period. Again, well written and very informative.
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