In this excellent book written for both general readers and specialists, Karl F. Friday adds tremendously to our understanding of the history of Heian Japan (784–1185). As a military historian of the “new military history” persuasion, Friday focuses on how the “warrior order” came of age in the tenth century. Its members were fighting men who were privately trained and equipped, and they served as licensed enforcers for the Kyoto court. The warrior chieftain whose life makes these epochal developments particularly visible is Taira no Masakado (d. 940).
Much of the evidence for Friday's story comes from a chronicle known as the Shōmonki (literally, “The Record of Masakado”), which, fortunately, was translated into English by Judith Rabinovitch in 1986. Friday supplements a close reading of its narrative with contemporary and later sources to paint a portrait of Masakado within his world, ranging from the Kyoto capital to the eastern marches...
