Age of Samurai on Netflix...
If you've ever even had a passing interest in the subject of feudal Japan, the Sengoku period (a time of almost constant civil war lasting over 100 years) and eventual unification under a single Shogun you want to watch this series.
I started to investigate this period of history related to the study of martial arts around 1979 / 1980 and this may be the best "series" I have ever seen on the subject. Things like the tv series "Shogun" presented a mostly accurate environment but when it came to the "details" they were a lot like "The Patriot" with mix and match facts and names.
The absolute best thing about the series is the participation of those like Stephen Turnbull who demystifies events and people and provides a less romanticized assessment. The historical events are simply related in a coherent timeline with the nature and relationship of events simply explained in context.
Esoteric ideas and cultural considerations unique to people, places and persons are simply defined rather than made a source of wonder. The first three episodes conveyed more "easily understood" critical people and events information than some entire semesters of Japanese history classes I have participated in. Many people who have studied parts of this time but don't feel 100% about their understanding of this and that will watch in and go "Oh....that is what that idiot kept trying to talk about."
There is a tendency among teachers of Japanese history, and the samurai in particular, to spend more time trying to impress students and peers with their command of Japanese language (but usually it is just words they know) and known nuances unique to both than to try and convey any of this information in a way that can be grasped, understood and remembered by westerners.
It's time well spent and so far I haven't caught a single error, only points of contention where more than one POV is possible. They even delved into the "many kinds of samurai" can of worms pretty competently as what a samurai was changed over time and could be unique from location to location, it really wasn't until after the unification that the conventional model of "what is a samurai" was really defined.
And yeah, a lot of time is spent discussing the role of firearms in nearly every conflict of the Sengoku period and how those who discovered how to employ them in a practical way were usually the victor, even when greatly outnumbered.
But best of all, there is coherence among all of the historical experts and it's not like an episode of Crossfire where this guy suggest this happened and another expert disagrees with him and promotes and completely alternate point of view.
Last edited by SteyrAUG; 02-25-21 at 02:53.
It's hard to be a ACLU hating, philosophically Libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, scientifically grounded, agnostic, porn admiring gun owner who believes in self determination.
Chuck, we miss ya man.
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Originally Posted by Averageman
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