The image of the samurai is almost synonymous with Japanese history for many people: the honor-bound, bow and sword wielding individual warrior on horseback. It could have been very different. When the early Japanese Court was trying hard to adopt the massed infantry tactics of China, a series of defeats to an impressive “barbarian” guerrilla warrior from the north changed the military culture of the country.

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• Monument to the legendary “Emishi” warrior Aterui in Hirakata, Japan.
• Map of 8th century Japan. Territory dominated by the imperial Japanese is in red. “Silla” is the kingdom in Southern Korea Japan attempted to invade late in the previous century.
• Medieval Japan as it looked later. Provinces 2 and 3 here are Mutsu and Dewa, the large sections of “frontier” country that was wrested from the Emishi and loosely organized even centuries later.
• The famous general Sakanoue Tamuramaro—the first successful man to wear the title sei-tai-shogun, or “great general who subdues the barbarians,” later shortened in popular history to “Shogun.” This is a fanciful depiction of him from centuries later.
• Wooden model of Aterui’s head from a Japanese shrine. This isn’t notable for how Aterui looked (there are no contemporary depictions of him that survive.) This is significant for how the Japanese people wanted to remember him: the embodiment of fierce defiance.

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A History of Japan to 1334

The OG—Sansom wrote a comprehensive history of Japan that is readable and scholarly at the same time, while still respected many decades later. Volume 2 is even better, although it covers events centuries later than those of this podcast.

Heavenly Warriors: The Evolution of Japan’s Military, 500–1300

When my own history professor assigned this way back when, she made clear it was a “counter” narrative to a lot of how Japanese history had been interpreted for many decades. It’s a great companion source to something like Sansom.