Who are your top 3 ALL-TIME Favorite samurai?

[goandal]

Actual or fictional, of course.

Mine are:

1. Usagi of course.
2. Toshiro Mifune
3. Michaelangelo

I'd probably include Uma Thurman. LOL!!!

[miyamoto musashi]

there was samurai named toshiro mifune as well?

anywho, my favorites are

Kenshin Uesugi or Uesugi Kenshin (whichever)

Shinmen Musashi No kami Fujiwara No Geshin (Miyamoto)

and Mitsuhide Akechi

[miyamoto musashi]

My favorite basketball player is manu ginobli

[Steve Hubbell]

Three all-time favorite samurai:
I. Comics:
- 1. Miyamoto Usagi (Usagi Yojimbo)
- 2. Ogami Itto (Lone Wolf and Cub)
- 3. Kubikiri Asaemon (Samurai Executioner)

II. Books:
- 1. Musashi Miyamoto (Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi)
- 2. Matsuyama Kaze (Dale Furutani's "Samurai" trilogy)
- 3. Zenta and Matsuzo (Lensey Namioka's young adult series)
- 4. Sano Ichiro (Laura Joh Rowland's Shinju, Bundoro, etc)

III. Films:
- 1. Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Musashi trilogy, etc.)
- 2. Tatsuya Nakadai (Seppuku, Goyokin, Sword of Doom, etc.)
- 3. Hiroyuki Sanada (Twilight Samurai, Last Samurai, etc.)

IV. Reality:
- 1. Miyamoto Musashi (author of "The Book of Five Rings")
- 2. Yagyu Munenori (author of "The Life-Giving Sword")
- 3. Yuzan Daidoji (author of "The Code of the Samurai")


(ok, I cheated on a couple things - Oh well...)
Abayo...

[goandal]

Oooo, I almost forgot the Lone Wolf and Cub dude.

Good call.

[miyamoto musashi]

what about diagoro

he pees...HOORAY

[Usagi]

Wow- Steve! your Samurai smart! ^_^ Haha!

>......For anime I like Kenshin and Gentatsu...I know some others, but they pop in my head off the bat ^_^ I will surly come back to this

[Greentreesquid]

other then usagi

Jubei from ninjascroll
manji from blade of the immortal
and rurouni kenshin.

[Takeda Shingen]

Steve, I have an incredible amount of respect for you now.. There are no limits to how much I love Furutani's trilogy.. Matsuyama Kaze was such an incredibly entertaining figure.. I have looked everywhere for a cheap copy of those three books... I usually scour Ebay once or twice a week.. I actually didn't look the last two weeks because I was strapped for cash.. And what happens? Kill the Shogun pops up and goes for like $9.50 (including shipping)... To say I was upset would be an understatment..

I work at a bookstore, and I have access through it to some used copies, but being out of print, those suckers are like $60-$80 each.. No thanks.

But on to the answer to the question:

As my name may show Takeda Shingen is my favorite Daimyo from the Sengoku Era... I am also fascinated my Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Akechi Mitsuhide (solely for his turning on Oda Nobunaga). Post 1600, I really enjoy reading on Ryoma Sakamoto..

Though they aren't "Samurai" per se, the Ikko Ikki Warrior Monks are also fascinating.

[Steve Hubbell]

Steve, I have an incredible amount of respect for you now.. There are no limits to how much I love Furutani's trilogy.. Matsuyama Kaze was such an incredibly entertaining figure.. I have looked everywhere for a cheap copy of those three books... I usually scour Ebay once or twice a week.. I actually didn't look the last two weeks because I was strapped for cash.. And what happens? Kill the Shogun pops up and goes for like $9.50 (including shipping)... To say I was upset would be an understatment..

I work at a bookstore, and I have access through it to some used copies, but being out of print, those suckers are like $60-$80 each.. No thanks.

Even though I've read the trilogy several times now, I still have not gotten around to buying a set of them yet, mainly because the first book is so high priced, even for the used library editions I've seen listed.

On the other hand, I have seen several copies of the second and third books for close to publisher price ($30 range) that are autographed, which sound like good deals. (Check it out, I'm going to end up talking myself into ordering them.)

Abayo...

P.S.
By the way, have you read "The Tokaido Road : A Novel of Feudal Japan" by LUCIA ST CLAIR ROBSON? It is suprisingly good, and I wish she had written more novels set in Japan. If you haven't read it, give it a try.

JAPAN IN HISTORICAL FICTION IN ENGLISH (Cool web page)
http://www.home.netspeed.com.au/reguli/japhist.htm