Thank you for posting this topic, Ralphie.

I probably have a greater interest in Japanese history and culture than most. I spent a summer in Japan as an exchange student. This was in the 1980's, when intelligent people worried that Japan would surpass America as the world's economic superpower. Remember Michael Creighton's "The Rising Sun?" A thoroughly enjoyable fantasy based on crap, although it seemed plausible at the time.

I also consumed a lot of popular fiction in the early 1980's that spoke of Japan and the Japanese. My first foray into that genre was "Shibumi" by Trevanian. This is still one of my favorite books. The protagonist, Nicolai Hel, is a super-assassin influenced by a Japanese philosophy called - you guessed it - shibumi.

An honorable mention goes to Eric Van Lustbader's "The Ninja." In it, ninjas are supermen and Western-style warriors are woefully inept in comparison.

Probably the best-written of the Japanese-influenced novels I read is James Clavell's "Shogun." It's incredibly well-researched and detail-oriented. I won't bother giving a summary because I'm sure you all caught the miniseries with Richard Chamberlain, which was great by the way, but the novel was even better. I think this is what "The Last Samurai" aspired to be like.

Read Shibumi. Read Shogun. Die happy.
 

Oh, yeah? Well I saw all three pix in Sho Kosuji's American Ninja trilogy. And I used to watch Lee Van Cleef's Ninja series religiously.

This week I heard of a Lubavitch (Chabad) Ninja. I must seek him out and learn his ways.