The book is based on a decade of research into the documentary and material evidence from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Japan, focusing on the ways in which elite samurai used art, swords, and other forms of material culture in politics and social relations.
The book examines:
- The acquisition and exchange of material objects and the acquisition and exchange of hostages
- The display of material culture at social and cultural rituals such as tea ceremonies, banquets, and celebrations of battlefield victories
- The exchange of gifts as a means of maintaining warrior social relations
- The practice of falconry, including the exchange of live falcons and acquisition of land for hunting
- Social rituals and war, such as head examination ceremonies
- The deification of Tokugawa Ieyasu using material culture
- The modern afterlife of Tokugawa Ieyasu and his material culture in museums
