War chronicles
Sengoku
Campaigns, commanders, and ordinary soldiers through the Shinchō Kōki, Kōyō Gunkan, Zōhyō Monogatari, and records associated with Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Enter Sengoku →Read the record, then read the history
Beyond the legend lies the text.
A source-led guide to Japan’s warring states, ninjutsu, sword traditions, and the Chinese military classics read in Japan—built around short passages from surviving works and the context needed to understand them.
Four reading rooms
Start with a tradition
Each category is a shelf of primary-source series. New works can be added without changing the way the site is organized.
Manuals of secrecy
Ninjutsu
What the early-modern manuals actually teach: judgment, intelligence, infiltration, restraint, tools, and the moral problem of secret methods.
Enter Ninjutsu →Strategy and the sword
Swordsmanship
Close readings from Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings and Yagyū Munenori’s Heihō Kadensho.
Enter Swordsmanship →Seven Military Classics
Military Classics
Liu Tao, San Lüe, Sima Fa, Sunzi, Wuzi, Wei Liaozi, and the Questions and Replies, read one passage at a time.
Enter Military Classics →How to use the archive
Follow the evidence trail
The same reading pattern appears throughout the site, so a first-time visitor can compare an article’s conclusion with the material supporting it.
Begin with the passage
Read before interpreting
A fresh translation and the short original appear before the main discussion. The source note identifies the relevant scroll, chapter, section, or dated entry and, where possible, the library witness used.
Check the terms
Keep difficult words visible
Names, titles, technical verbs, and disputed expressions receive separate notes. Leaving the original term visible prevents a convenient modern label from silently deciding the historical question.
Test the boundary
Notice what remains uncertain
The conclusion distinguishes the selected wording from inference and later tradition. For a detailed account of editions, repositories, and correction rules, read the source policy.
New readings
Latest articles
The translator
Complete works, read with restraint
Shiki Tsushima translates and edits classical Japanese texts for modern readers. The books offer complete translations; this site takes a different form. It selects small passages, creates new translations specifically for the web, and asks what each passage can—and cannot—support.