Re: An opinion on Stephen Turnbull's work-Murphy

I believe Dr Turnbull has done a valiant effort in bringing samurai studies
before the public------and academics like me------who are far from familiar
with the Japanese tongue. However, two points bothered me from his work. In
his Battles of the Samurai, he stated that the raid on the army of Takeda
Katsuyori was staged by Oda Nobunaga the night before the battle of Nagashino in
1575. However, in his The Samurai Sourcebook he went with the other authors
and stated it took place in the morning of the battle. This was a critical
raid---since it relieved the castle that Takeda was besieging, and also
crippled the Takeda clan forces still back at the castle. To misstate this would be
akin to saying that JEB Stuart's cavalry raid did not affect General Lee's
Confederate army at Gettysburg in the American Civil War in 1863. Furthermore,
in his Sourcebook, Turnbull shows an elaborate painting of a Japanese castle
siege, complete with European siege engines, which he says is based on the
research he is doing in the Tower Armories in London. I have not had access to
those records---however, in the research I have done in Japanese pictorial
sources (again I admit to no language facility!) I have not yet seen depiction's
in the Japanese pictures that show anything similar to what Turnbull
portrays. Any comments? Prof John Murphy, The Japan Foundation


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