"This is a fine book: thoroughly researched across an impressive array of primary sources, covering the subject broadly and in depth, and meticulously set within the context of previous scholarship on both premodern Japan and piracy as a world historical phenomenon."
--Journal of Japanese Studies
— Karl Friday, Journal of Japanese Studies
"...an impressive study of sea power and state formation that resituates medieval Japanese history within a dynamic East Asian maritime world."
--Monumenta Nipponica
— Noell Wilson, Monumenta Nipponica
"In step with the maritime turn in global history, Lords of the Sea takes readers down to the shore for a fresh look at Japan in the heyday of the samurai. Reading against the grain of a terracentric archive, Shapinsky demonstrates beyond a doubt the importance of sea power to late medieval Japanese society—as well as to the consolidation of an early modern order, in the archipelago and beyond. Essential reading."
—Kären Wigen, Stanford University
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"Lords of the Sea makes a number of important contributions. It is the first book-length monograph on this topic in English, and it covers the topic thoroughly, placing Japanese pirates in an appropriate late medieval/early modern context that will be useful to scholars studying other parts of the world. The research draws on an impressive list of primary materials, making this volume the obvious starting point for any future research into piracy in Japan. But surely the book’s greatest strength lies in its treatment of sources, revealing how various biases have led to obfuscation of sea lords and their roles in late medieval Japan. Shapinsky demonstrates convincingly that most premodern sources assumed the propriety of land-based authority—something he labels 'terracentrism'—and that they overlooked or mischaracterized the actions of others, including those on the water. . . . Through his detailed research, effective integration of scholarship that addresses piracy in other parts of the world, and careful questioning of the hidden biases in primary sources, Shapinsky has produced a fine book that is sure to be of interest to specialists of medieval, early modern, and maritime studies."
—Ethan Segal, H-Net Reviews
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"This is a fine book: thoroughly researched across an impressive array of primary sources, covering the subject broadly and in depth, and meticulously set within the context of previous scholarship on both premodern Japan and piracy as a world historical phenomenon."
--Journal of Japanese Studies
— Karl Friday, Journal of Japanese Studies
"...an impressive study of sea power and state formation that resituates medieval Japanese history within a dynamic East Asian maritime world."
--Monumenta Nipponica
— Noell Wilson, Monumenta Nipponica