What primary sources are available for the Sengoku Jidai?

by earl_of_animu

I am looking to do a bit of research for a project on the Sengoku Jidai but am struggling to find any primary sources amongst the secondary material. What are the names of the primary material and where can I go about finding it in either Japanese or English?

LTercero

Hey! This is a question that has been asked a few times before, u/ParallelPain and myself have provided some sources and context, which I’ll link to the threads here and here . As you will find, there unfortunately are not many stand alone translated primary sources. There are some works (again, see the links for them) which provide various excerpts from primary sources along with context.

In addition to the sources we had listed, you also may want to check out ’The First European Description of Japan 1585: A critical English-language edition of Striking Contrasts in the customs of Europe and Japan by Luis Frois, S.J.’ translated by Richard Danford, Robin Gill, and Daniel Reff. There are also some fascinating monographs on the period you might want to look into, which while not being standalone translations of primary sources, they are explorations and analysis’ which are built on careful examination of primary sources. Some good ones to check out are David Spafford’s A Sense of Place, Mary Berry’s The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto, Mary Berry’s Hideyoshi, Carol Tsung’s War and Faith, Morgan Pitelka’s Spectacular Accumulation, Jeroen Lamer’s Japonius Tyrannus, to name a few. If you are looking for a monograph or other work on something more specific with regards to the period, don’t hesitate to ask.

Edit: Links are acting funny, but hopefully work now.