samurai, ninja and myths

Hi all,

I've been a long time lurker and very, very rarely poster ... I've
enjoyed the knowledgeable discussions and even the not so
knowledgeable discussions as well, lol.

Anyway, before I start explaining what this post is about, keep in
mind that I'm at university majoring in Asian Studies and
Philosophy, with my major interest being anything to do with East
Asia, and especially Japan. I'm quite widely read on Japanese
culture, history and language.

My university's anime society is holding its second convention in a
couple of weeks and I'm presenting two lectures/discussions in a
more serious, educational and factual nature then what is usually
presented at such events. One is titled "Shinto, its origins and
what it means to modern Japan" (being of major importance to my
potential post-graduate studies/research) and the other is
titled "Samurai, Ninja and Mythconceptions". Now the purpose of
this post is to ask the samurai history community about any good
resources/links related to the second topic, well anything relating
to the first is quite welcome too. I've come across quite a lot of
info already, the uni library has a very large collection of books
about Japan, in fact too much, because I can't possibly look at it
all before the con … I'm also doing a summer school unit which takes
priority.

If it's ok with Nate, I would like to quote extensively from
his "Common Misconceptions Concerning those Kewl Ninja" as well
as "The Top Eleven Western, Modern Day Common Misconceptions About
The Samurai", is that yours as well Nate? Also do you have any
references for these articles?

Cheers,
Warren

--- Reverend Biz <biz_in_japan@...> wrote:

> If it's ok with Nate, I would like to quote
> extensively from
> his "Common Misconceptions Concerning those Kewl
> Ninja" as well
> as "The Top Eleven Western, Modern Day Common
> Misconceptions About
> The Samurai", is that yours as well Nate? Also do
> you have any
> references for these articles?

Feel free to use the "Common Misconceptions", that's
all mine. Email me offlist if you'd like as well. As
for the "Top Eleven Misconceptions", that's not mine;
I contributed some of the information, but someone
else put it together. Kitsuno would likely be the best
person to ask, since I haven't been in contact with
the author in quite a while.



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