A SAMURAI CASTLE

In the Inside Story series, a sedate view of traditional samurai culture, with slight emphasis on the great castles built in Japan during the 16th and 17th centuries. Younger fans of military architecture will be intrigued by the differences between European castles and Japanese ones, with their painted exteriors, wooden upper stories, upswept roofs, moveable interior walls, etc. Unfortunately, that interest won't be served by the book; despite the title, castles (not all of them real) are depicted on only eight pages, often shown from picturesque rather than revealing angles. Browsers, too, may be disappointed, if not by the tame seige scene and the fairly sterile violence (a horseman bears very clean severed heads; a scene of combat ends in a barely discernible disembowelment), then by the absence of ninja, bright colors, or fine details. The information is reliable, if vague (is a ``koku'' a measure of rice, of land that provides that measure of rice, or both?) and only rarely sparked by a colorful incident or detail. Overall, this is too bland and general to have more than passing appeal. (appendix, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)