Samurai Death Cult: The Dark Side of Bushido

Samurai Death Cult: The Dark Side of Bushido

A fascinating look at the dark side of the noble Japanese warrior, reviewing evidence to see if the samurai was the consummate noble savage or an oppressive blood thirsty tyrant. Time to take a soul-shower, it is about to get dark. The samurai, a noble warrior fighting against oppression or a frenzied head hunter seeking his next gruesome trophy? Both images appear in popular imagination but are never reconciled, why? In this short book Antony Cummins will take you down the sinister avenues of history, unleashing the true horror of what it means to be a warrior in feudal Japan, ignoring: trends in history, political correctness and ethical debate. Instead the bare facts are revealed, exposing the reality of what it mean to be young, bored and given a sword. The samurai were Japan’s child soldiers, brought up in a position of power, elevated to the status of man, warrior and leader before they were even half way though their teens. While school children today walk to their long list of dull classes, a teenager in old Japan was taught: decapitation, ritual disembowelment, esoteric magic, animal sacrifice, murder, assassination, political intrigue and in many cases were subject to intensive indoctrination. There is no wonder then why Japan is full of stories of butchery and bloodlust, of atrocity and violence. Where then does the predominant image of the trusty and nobble warrior come from and how can these two reflections of the world’s most famous warrior be accurate? Enter if you dare and discover the true way of the samurai. Antony Cummins is the author of many books on samurai history and eastern warfare, including: the Book of Ninja, the Book of Bushido, the Book of Samurai series and the Ultimate Art of War.