I am looking for a cultural or military history (or both, if applicable), and am most interested in the Heian through Edo periods.
As an example, I greatly enjoyed Robert L. O'Connell's *The Ghosts of Cannae, and would really like to find a book of similar scope and depth. That said, I am definitely open to more general histories of the periods, as opposed to simply a narrow history of a formative event like the Battle of Sekigahara.
Thanks so much!
Grain of salt since my books are from my university library and therefore pretty old but here's a few.
Government and Local Power in Japan 500-1700 by John Whitney Hall and printed in 1966. This one's pretty exhaustive. I haven't read it in it's entirety but considering other books on Japan I've read that were written around this time by Western people, be wary of possible bias.
Daily Life In Early Modern Japan by Louis G. Prez in 2002 is a good one and covers just about everything (though mostly in relation to the Tokugawa Era but there is a smidge of older history given), though only lightly. For instance in the chapter "Sex", prostitution and homosexuality are briefly mentioned and the chapter goes into the topic of Geisha a little, but Oiran, who appear alongside Geisha for a time, are mentioned not at all.
There's also Emperor and Aristocracy in Japan, 1467-1680 by Lee Butler in 2002. This one goes into a lot of depth as far as how individuals acted.
As far as the Heian Era, the best book I can suggest is looking at Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book for a look at Japanese culture from a noble woman's perspective and to glean information from that. Anything earlier than the end of Heian and onward, I've, personally, had trouble finding information on (at least in English). Though it seems Liza Daley might be a credible source for information on the Heian Era.
We used Keizers en Shogun by W.J. Boot (2009) for our introductory course to pre-modern Japanese history, but the book itself is in Dutch, so it probably won't be of any use to you. If you can read Dutch, however, it's a short overview of all pre-modern Japanese history. It is by no means comprehensive, but it can serve as a general introduction.