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Rating: 
Summary: A Good Overview of Japan's Castles
Review: This book provides a good overview of Japanese castles from the introduction of stone bases and walls in 1540 to the introduction of long range bombardment in 1640. The book provides information on the Japanese castle's history, layout and castle elements, daily life, operational history, and information on the castles today. There are many photos from the Turnbull's travels and excellent illustrations by Peter Dennis.Anyone familiar with the Osprey series books will be happy with this edition. As someone not familiar with Japanese castle history, the book gave me an excellent overview and understanding of their role. It also has a good bibliography for getting more information. However, there are a few shortcomings in the book. I dislike the author's tendency to jump around in the narrative. "As previously mentioned...", "As noted earlier...", "As will be explained later..." I also wish there were a good map of the castles showing locations, build dates, and other info. The author leaves this responsibility to other books. The illustrations are excellent, full of detail, and wonderful bird's eye and cutaway views. The battle illustrations contain many tiny tales in some of the details. The cutaway views contain many interesting vignettes. My edition of the book has one of the castle keep illustrations on the cover. My only complaint with the illustrations is that I would love to see more. All in all, a very good, well illustrated overview of the subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Overview of Japan's Castles
Review: This book provides a good overview of Japanese castles from the introduction of stone bases and walls in 1540 to the introduction of long range bombardment in 1640. The book provides information on the Japanese castle's history, layout and castle elements, daily life, operational history, and information on the castles today. There are many photos from the Turnbull's travels and excellent illustrations by Peter Dennis. Anyone familiar with the Osprey series books will be happy with this edition. As someone not familiar with Japanese castle history, the book gave me an excellent overview and understanding of their role. It also has a good bibliography for getting more information. However, there are a few shortcomings in the book. I dislike the author's tendency to jump around in the narrative. "As previously mentioned...", "As noted earlier...", "As will be explained later..." I also wish there were a good map of the castles showing locations, build dates, and other info. The author leaves this responsibility to other books. The illustrations are excellent, full of detail, and wonderful bird's eye and cutaway views. The battle illustrations contain many tiny tales in some of the details. The cutaway views contain many interesting vignettes. My edition of the book has one of the castle keep illustrations on the cover. My only complaint with the illustrations is that I would love to see more. All in all, a very good, well illustrated overview of the subject matter.
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