Wow, a long time between reviews for me. This book did take me a while to get through but there were also other distractions keeping me away from reading in the last month or so.
A strong 4 here as I pick up another history book to try and clear away some gaps in my knowledge. All I had for this period in Japanese history was references to it from 'Lone Wolf and Cub', not really a comprehensive understanding. This book fair delivered on that ambition.
I particularly enjoyed how clear eyed this book was about the people it was chronicling. These were vicious, thuggish warlords whose motivations were as much about their own aggrandizement as any lofty goals of national unity. The book never shied away from that or tried to 'redeem' them in any way. It also pointed out how adept these guys were at adopting new technology and taking from other cultures (particularly the Europeans) what would serve their ends while keeping away from assimilation.
It was a long book though with a few minor structural flaws. A tighter edit was definitely required as there is the odd wrong word used and sometimes labyrinthine sentence structures. There were also long screeds of dry data (retainer x received y fief of z koku) that I felt could have been summarised or stuck in an appendix.
Apart from this, an important 100 odd years of Japanese history was covered well and I feel the read was time well spent. Recommended.