I need suggestions for books similar to Shogun or the Musashi series. Any ideas?

Eiji Yoshikawa, author of Musashi, also wrote Taiko, which deals with Hideyoshi Toyotomi's rise to power. John Allyn's The 47 Ronin Story, while not epic in length, is another good one, as is Donald Richie's Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai.

And finally, you might check out Takashi Matsuoka's A Cloud of Sparrows or Autmn Bridge. I've not read these two, but they take place in fuedal Japan.

Mike (Cindy's husband)

A bit less historical and more shounen/action-adventure fiction,  but still with historical and samurai theme, is Rurouni Kenshin samurai series by Nobuhiro Watsuki.  Takes place during the turbulent Bakumatsu era and its aftermath.

For a reading group at Wake Forest University a few years back, we read Fumiko Enchi's The Waiting Years.  I wouldn't have thought there could be such a thing as a Japanese "feminist" novel, but this novel is one such.  The long-suffering wife of the petty bureaucrat obtains her revenge (of a peculiarly Japanese sort) only at the very end of the story.  I haven't forgotten this book since reading it several years ago.  It takes place during the Meiji Restoration.