HI all
I could, join in this debate on mr Turnbull, but I think I will try
and avoid this and try and be helpful instead. I have found some
excellent pictures of samurai banners. Maybe some have found it, but
maybe some have not. It is of interest to anyone who likes Heraldry
or mon. Perhaps also to people who research Japanese prefectures. The
links are
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/jp-kuni.html
also
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/geo-jp.html -shows a good map
of Japan. In general this is a good base for further research. I am
starting a website soon, among the topics I want to look into, will
be Japanese prefectures, from Heian to modern day. Mainly
concentrating on old maps from adventurers, looking at English
spellings etc. My goal is one time to have a map of Japan I am happy
with for each date in time. If anyone knows of good maps, I would
appreciate a shout, one site I like is
http://www.davidrumsey.com/view.html
just type Japan for search topic, you will be rewarded by excellent
maps, takes a while though.
Ok then hope this helps.
Turnbull is not the best in his field, but I suppose until as Kitsuno
says the West catches up with Japanese historians, he is at least
keeping the subject accesible to people, the problem lies in if by
doing this people get the wrong view of the Bushi, I believe it is a
matter of compromise, I guess, that if we want to read popular quite
easy to read books, we will continue to buy each book as it comes
out. If we want scholarly books to use for study then I guess the
advice is like others have said look to Japanese sources, or to the
past although there are also some other good Western writers. Oh
well Im not sure, we can't have the best of both worlds.
hmmm, can we?
all the best
Mark