Quotation

Samurai Rising

the Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune
“A good Commander-in-Chief gallops forward when he ought to and draws back when he ought to …. A rigid man is called a ‘wild boar warrior’; people do not think much of him.” === The genius of the Japanese sword lies in its structure. The blade is made from two kinds of steel: a rigid steel that holds the sharp edge and does the cutting, and a flexible steel that forms the backbone. When forged into one blade, these sibling steels produce a sword that can slice without snapping. === A lady might layer twenty silk robes to create multiple lines of color at her sleeve and hem, and top it all with an exquisite over-robe: lavender dotted with plum blossoms, perhaps, or white embroidered with birds and butterflies. To walk in this costume was like dragging around several sets of bedding— comforters included. === A “barbarian” was anybody who lived farther away from Kyoto than you did.