[Secondary Source Analysis] The Dawn Of The Samurai Secondary Source Analysis (Made 2024 Spring Semester)

Karl F. Friday. “The Dawn of the Samurai” In Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850, edited by Karl Friday, 1st edition., 178-88. Boulder, Colo: Routledge, 2012.

Samurai did not come to power in Japan quickly nor did their existence collapse Japan’s government, instead privatization of military might came before any collapse and an evolution of power followed in the centuries after the 12th century. Karl F. Friday is a Japanologist with a Doctorate from Stanford University. He has been teaching for decades, including both in his native United States and in Japan, and has written at least a half-dozen books in relation to Japanese history. Friday utilizes little in the way of evidence in the chapter in question, with scant citations, though what evidence he does point out, all primary sources, support the conclusions he draws regarding the rise of the Samurai. He uses sources for quotes, but mostly relies on his own knowledge and the ethos he has as a respected and pedigreed professor to make the information he provides seem trustworthy, as is common with many non-fiction books that are not explicitly textbooks. He uses one quote to prove his claim that, at one point, the military of Japan was being used as labor rather than for their combat prowess, and another quote to show that the wealthy became mounted archers while the poor became footsoldiers. This is mostly how he uses evidence, scarcely and to back up a claim but not to prove overarching ideas. This does not mean his information is wrong, but it would require other evidence supporting it to be able to be used in an essay as a secondary source, since his overall thesis is supported not by his sources but by his own personal breadth of knowledge. This book has little to no importance in regards to my project as it doesn’t discuss Shinto, the focus of my project, although I may be able to use it as evidence of background information or to point out the effects of Shinto despite nothing explicitly tied to Shinto being included in, at least, the chapter available to me.