I need christmas presents for my dad, and I've been completely stumped (not to mention broke) - He loves feudal Japan, he'll buy a dvd just because it's in that setting, no matter how poorly dubbed it is =P

If anyone could reccomend books in that genre (He loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero and I have Rashomon Gate on my wishlist) that you have on your bookshelf, I need a few to order before christmas =)

Something Vaguely fantasy, or at least fiction would be preferable.

(I went with Book Bazarr, but perhaps Hidden Gems would have been more appropriate?)

I love reading that era also and I have some suggestions for you:

Cloud of Sparrows and Autumn Bridge by Takashi Matsuoka are excellent.

Anything by Lian Hearn such as Across the Nightingale Floor, Grass for His Pillow, Brilliance of the Moon, and Harsh Cry of the Heron are great picks.

Anything from Larua Joh Rowland in her Sano Ichiro detective series which starts with Shinju and Bundori.

Anything by I.J. Parker.

Crouching tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero are both Chinese movies so you may look into something like that also.

Hope this helps!!

Shannon

Movies:  The 7 Samurai, The Last Samurai, Shogun  (Shannon's right--the other titles you listed are chinese, not japanese!)

Fiction:  anything by Murasaki, The Samurai's Tale and/or the Boy and the Samurai (written for older children, but so what? I enjoyed them!), Memoirs of a Geisha (the book is much better than the movie)

non-Fiction:  Feudalism in Japan, Pictorial Encyclopedia of Japanese Culture by Gakken (hardcover, "coffee table" type book but chock full of glorious illustrations, photos, charts, information...) 

I own most of these, but sorry I'm not giving them up!!  :)  Good luck!

http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/author/Laura+Joh+Rowland < Sano Ichiro mysteries by Laura Joh Rowland. They are like a cross between a samurai flick and a detective novel.

Also its not really fuedal Japan its fantasy but the Legend of the Five Rings books from Wizards of the Coast http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/browse_advanced.php?k=legend+of+the+five+rings are really great. They are not really all that .... accurate about the setting and culture but they are pretty decent reads and are written by different authors so its really like following characters. What I mean is each book has a different main character and since they are all written by different authors they voices of each character stand out as different.

I'm with Chris!  I just read Snow Empress and looooooooved it :)  Plus there's an entire series so you can get the first book and then every time you need to get him a gift, get the next book in the series :)