“This is an excellent presentation of a classic work. This version contains a solid preface, followed by the Marriott translation of the work itself and then a couple of essay appendices to provide further reflections and context. … However, aside from the content itself being sound, what really struck me about this book was the presentation. The hardcover binding is in a royal purple fabric with a sheen that gives the appearance of silk. This is pressed with textured lettering and silver detailing. The artwork consists largely of beautiful photos of relevant artworks which are scattered very liberally amongst the core content of the book. The pages are solid with every single one containing some colour, even if it is just for a fine border or faux watermark detailing. The typeset also appears to be Garamond which makes for clean presentation and easy reading. As superficial as all of this is, it seems the people that pulled this book together wanted the presentation to frame the content well – and have succeeded.”

“…this is probably the finest English edition of the Hagakure that I’ve ever seen. The full color illustrations are phenomenal. This is one of my prized pieces of my entire book collection. Great for study, Japanese literature collections, and would make a great gift to anyone interested in Samurai code or Japanese art.”

 

“After reading several versions of the Hagakure, I found this book to be the best version available today.”

“If you do not know anything about the Chinese people, Chinese culture, art, history… rule of thinking… this is the book to get. … In addition to a fine translation of the original texts there is thorough analysis and interpretation of each chapter at the end. … I grabbed this copy at a local bookstore many months back looking for a version [of this historic text] to recommend to people. This is it.”