Rating: 
Summary: Excellent work!
Review: I teach martial arts. My eight year old son, who also happens to be one of my students, talked me into buying this book for him on his birthday. Since it wasn't a graphic novel and I wanted to encourage his reading I went ahead and picked up a copy for him even though I didn't think he was really ready for it. He not only read the whole thing, but he really seemed to understand the text as well. I was frankly amazed. Soooo, on an eight-year old's recommendation I picked up the book and began to read it myself. A couple hours later I found I couldn't put it down.
This is a compelling, well written translation. It is fascinating and, for the most part, still relevant to modern life. Many of us who pursue the martial path do so in part to build good character, enhance mental discipline, develop physical conditioning, and of course, learn skills for self-defense. Yet the package is not complete in my opinion without a solid understanding of Japanese culture and history. After all, it played a huge role in forming what we do. This book is a great place to start learning that aspect of the martial arts.
Lawrence Kane
Author of Martial Arts Instruction: Applying Educational Theory and Communication Techniques in the Dojo
Rating: 
Summary: So disappointed!
Review: I was so upset after I finished reading this book. I wish it wasn't updated and they just kept it in its original version. If you are looking for a historical information of how the samurai lived and their values, this is the wrong book. Read Bushido: The Soul of Japan. The Code of The Samurai really felt like The Code of the Japanese Business Man.
Rating:
Summary: Death is the central issue...
Review: In a time of peace, at the end of the Tokugawa regime, (1603-1867), the Samurai extended their duties into the administrative class, developing from mere 'attendants' to philosophers, scholars, physicians, and teachers, creating concise systems of mental and moral training. This class influenced the country's culture in profound ways, which continues to be felt and seen in modern day Japan. Fearing that the Samurai would lose their basic purpose and essential character, author Taira Shigesuke, (1639-1730) a Confucian scholar, wrote this handbook for the novice knight. For the beginning knight, this book would have been indispensable, in terms of conducting oneself in the true spirit of the Samurai. The book is structured in three parts, including subjects ranging from education, familial duty, frugality, courtesy and respect, laziness, discretion to military service, vassalage and loyalty to dealing with one's superiors. What is so valuable about this book for the modern western reader is that it provides age-old ethical guidelines that are exceedingly practical and relevant to the present day. Central to the Samurai philosophy is the notion of concerning oneself daily with death. Shigesuke emphasises from the outset, that, "As long as you keep death in mind at all times, you will also fulfil the ways of loyalty and familial duty." In other words, everything else follows from this basic attitude - a long life, and a character that will improve and virtue that will grow. This makes sense, of course, because as the author points out, when you think your time here will last, you're inclined to take it for granted, thereby saying things you shouldn't say and letting important matters slide because "...it can always be done tomorrow." This powerful little book is as compelling and relevant as it was over 400 hundred years ago. It will not take more than an hour to read, but its contents hold treasures that should be referred back to in order to remind one that life is short and should never be taken for granted. This book is also recommended to students of Asian studies as it provides a fundamental understanding of Japanese culture.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and interesting.
Review: Seems well translated, but I only say this based upon how clearly it read. I was looking for a broken English sort of style and it was instead very easy to read. Amazing what the Samurai understood. Recommended reading for anyone interested in Asian history or even to see what someone wrote without an American upbringing. Can you imagine someone understanding these nuances of behavior without growing up in a "civilized" country?
An amazing ride for anyone's conscience.
Rating: 
Summary: Code of the Samurai:
Review: The book is explained in simple terms and gives the general concept of the samurai code; it is a very easy and quick read. It is not the best book on the subject, yet will serve as a primer on the subject. Good for begining martial art students to read.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting
Review: The book was very interesting. It tells how the samurai warrior had to live his life in order to be noble and respectable. I found that the advice it has to offer is very helpful even today. It is very short and easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: The REALISTIC guide for the samurai
Review: The first time I read a book about samurai philosophy and customs, it was the Hagakure. After reading it, I felt sick and even embarassed that I was so heavily into martial arts having origins in such a death-focussed, suicidal, slavish mentality. After reading it, I lost most of my interest in the origins of the Japanese martial arts, and Japanese culture. How mistaken I was... Two years ago, I bought the "Code of the Samurai", and my interest immediately returned. This book was written one hundred years earlier than the Hagakure and thus it was written closer to the time when the Samurai were in fact warriors and not so only in theory (as they were at the time of the publication of the Hagakure). Both books have in intention the reformation of the Samurai class to what the authors consider to be proper moral standards. But after reading both, it seems evident that the Hagakure is a forlorn attempt to recreate some kind of "glorious" suicidal mindset that never existed much in reality. The "Code of the Samurai" gives suggestions for every facet of behaviour... Everything about this book is remarkably humane, and very well thought out. It promotes responisibility to all one's aquaintances, colleagues, and leaders. This book could be retitled as "How to be a Responsible Citizen". It is about how to live well, not about how to die. For those martial artists who are interested in learning about the cultural roots of their Japanese "ways" (DO), and about how they can model their lives in part on the lives of the samurai, or for those whose interest is simply in Japanese culture, this book is critical reading, even more so because it will take away the inhuman face given the Japanese by English translations of books like the Hagakure, and not confront the reader with the kind of bewliderment faced when reading the combination of practical and mystical found in the "Book of Five Rings". Do not be put off buying this book because of its "mere" ninety-eight pages. Every page is packed with fascinating ethical and corporate lessons. One can get more out of this book than tomes hundreds of pages long written by modern Westerners who have never lived in 17th Century Japan. The ideals held within the covers of this book are those that have been striven after in the Japanese martial arts right up to the present day, and, for those interested in the lives of the Samurai, this covers every significant factor.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Martial Arts resource!
Review: This book is a fantastic book that still has real life applicability, over 400 years after it was written. Thomas Cleary once again does an excellent job of conveying the essence of the original Japanese text. While this book is a short one, I would recommend that the reader not read this book all at once, but rather savor the passages in small bites. The depth of the passages far exceed their length, and it's all too easy to miss some of the impact. In the course of my martial arts studies, I found it best to read a small passage and then digest it as I go about my daily activities, applying the Bushido principles in my everyday life. After all, Bushido is a way of life, it's not just for the dojo. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Bushido or martial arts.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Martial Arts resource!
Review: This book is a fantastic book that still has real life applicability, over 400 years after it was written. Thomas Cleary once again does an excellent job of conveying the essence of the original Japanese text. While this book is a short one, I would recommend that the reader not read this book all at once, but rather savor the passages in small bites. The depth of the passages far exceed their length, and it's all too easy to miss some of the impact. In the course of my martial arts studies, I found it best to read a small passage and then digest it as I go about my daily activities, applying the Bushido principles in my everyday life. After all, Bushido is a way of life, it's not just for the dojo. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Bushido or martial arts.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: this book is an excellent picture of tokugawa-era japanese life. i highly recommend to anybody. not a difficult read at all, it outlines and details every aspect of the life of a samurai warrior back in the day. outstanding.
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