Anthony J. Bryant
February 14, 1961
December 25, 2013 (aged 52)
American
Author
Biography[edit]
Bryant was born in Franklin, Indiana, and was adopted at age 5 by Robert M. and Margaret Bryant.[1]
After Robert M. Bryant's death in 1967, Tony and his mother moved to Miami Shores, Florida, where he spent his youth and attended Pinecrest Preparatory School.[1] After graduating from Florida State University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in Japanese studies, he completed his graduate studies in Japanese studies (history, language, and armor) at Takushoku University in Tokyo, graduating in 1986. Bryant lived in Japan from 1986 to 1992.[1] He also earned an M.A. in Japanese from Indiana University Bloomington in 2003.[2]
An authority on the making of Japanese armor, he joined the Nihon Katchū Bugu Kenkyū Hozon Kai ("Japan Association for Arms and Armor Preservation"), and was one of four non-Asian members. While living in Japan, he also worked as a features editor for the Mainichi Daily News, and as editor for the Tokyo Journal, an English language monthly magazine.[1]
Bryant wrote four books for Osprey Publishing on samurai history, and co-authored, with Mark T. Arsenault, the core rulebook for the role-playing game Sengoku: Chanbara Roleplaying in Feudal Japan.[1] He was a historian of Japan specializing in Kamakura, Muromachi, and Momoyama period warrior culture. His areas of interest also included Heian-period court structure and society and Japanese literature.
After returning from Japan, in 1995 he became the editor of Dragon Magazine, the flagship publication of TSR, Inc., the creators of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.[1] He was the editor for eight issues, before Dave Gross took over.
Bryant died on December 25, 2013, at St. Francis Health in Indianapolis.[1]