There have been several books published on individual schools of Japanese swordsmanship in the last couple of years. But I bet you won't find one that comes close to Karl Friday's Legacies of the Sword when it comes to comprehensiveness, competence -- and sheer readability.

Other than Wiley, Friday focuses on one particular school of swordsmanship -- and still is able to recreate an entire social stratum by taking holistic vantage point in presenting the different cultural, traditional, and philosophical influences that shaped, molded, and influenced the martial culture of pre-industrial Japan.

Friday's style is more academic than Wiley's (and readers of HF know what I think of academic writing...) -- but this is one of the rare cases where this style actually enhances clarity: Besides being a substantial and substantive piece of scholarship, it's a pretty darn good read!