Samurai Text Tells Secrets of Sword-Fighters' 'Supernatural Powers'

From Live Science: 

A newly translated samurai text called "Twelve Rules of the Sword" reveals the secrets of a sword-fighting school that mastered a technique that seemed to give supernatural powers.

Dating back to the 17th century, the text contains knowledge passed down from a samurai named Itō Ittōsai (born around 1560), who fought and won 33 duels in Japan. Researchers aren't sure when he died, but historical records suggest he may have lived to be over age 90. Ittōsai never wrote down his "Twelve Rules of the Sword," and instead passed them on orally to his students at the One Cut sword-fighting school. The descendants of his students later recorded them in writing.

The text describes rules for beating an opponent as well as two magical prayers to enhance a samurai's spirit and mind, according to Eric Shahan, who recently translated the text. Shahan is a Japanese translator who specializes in translating Japanese martial-arts texts. He also holds a San Dan (third-degree black belt) in Kobudō, a Japanese martial art.

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African Samurai by Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard

From Paste Magazine:

Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard’s biography of Yasuke, an African slave-turned-mercenary who became Japan’s first foreign-born samurai, is an extraordinary story that feels especially poignant today. Lockley, an associate professor at Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, wrote the first academic paper describing Yasuke’s life. African Samurai adds flesh and blood (and smoke and entrails and steel) to the paper’s bones, chronicling a history that reads like a legend.

When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned (in local tradition) Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan’s martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society.

African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the 16th century, one whose travels between countries, cultures and classes offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan.

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450-Year-Old Book Reveals What to Name a Baby Samurai

From Live Science: 

What should you name a baby samurai? What food should a samurai bring to a battle? What is a samurai's most treasured possession? 

A newly translated 450-year-old book supposedly written by a renowned samurai provides answers to these and many other questions about the Japanese swordsmen. Called "The Hundred Rules of War," the book is a series of songs that could be sung by samurai, who had never gone into battle. It was supposedly written in Japanese in 1571 by a famous samurai named Tsukahara Bokuden, who lived from 1489 to 1571, during a war-ridden time in Japan. 

Stories told about Bokuden claim that he fought in over 100 battles and slew hundreds of swordsmen. The book was recently translated into English by Eric Shahan, who specializes in translating Japanese martial-arts texts. The book was first printed in Japanese in 1840, and has been republished in Japanese several times since then, Shahan told Live Science. 

read more here @ Live Science