Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 3

Shiba, Ryōtarō

Routledge

Clouds Above The Hill

Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 1

The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu

During the final year of the Tokugawa regime, Yoshinobu overhauls the military system, reorganizes civil administration, and expands foreign intercourse with the aim of creating a unified Japan

Biographies & Memoirs

Carpenter, Juliet Winters

Historical

Kodansha USA Inc

In Ryotaro Shiba's account of the life of Japan's last shogun, Perry's arrival off the coast of Japan was merely the spark that ignited the cataclysm in store for the Japanese people and their governments. It came to its real climax with the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the event which forms the centerpiece of this book. The Meiji Restoration — as history calls it — toppled the shogunate, and brought a seventeen-year-old boy emperor back from the secluded Imperial Palace in Kyoto to preside over what amounted to a political and cultural revolution. With this, Japan's extraordinary self-modernization began in earnest. Coming to power just as the Tokugawa regime was suffering the worst military defeat in its history, Yoshinobu strongly suspected that the rule of the Tokugawas — the third and longest lived of Japan's three warrior governments - was swiftly becoming an anachronism. During a year of frenetic activity, he overhauled the military systems, reorganized the civil administration, promoted industrial development, and expanded foreign intercourse, with the farsighted aim of creating a unified Japan. Alarmed by these reforms, pro-imperial interests moved against him, precipitating the Boshin Civil War and the final defeat of the shogunal armies. To the surprise of his enemies, Yoshinobu capitulated. It was this surrender of authority at a crucial point that made the transfer of sovereignty relatively peaceful. He then retired to Mito and lived quietly for the rest of his life, studying the new art of photography. Ennobled a prince in the new European-style nobility of the Meiji era, he died in 1913.

KODANSHA AMERICA +

By the early seventeenth century the Tokugawa shogunate had achieved supremacy over nearly all its opponents throughout the islands of Japan. Meanwhile, the great Ming dynasty of China, which came to power in 1368, was on its last legs. Corruption was rampant, extravagant expenditures emptied state coffers, while rural poverty and banditry were destroying the fabric of life in north China. North of the Great Wall, the nomadic Jurchens were beginning to cause the Ming government trouble. Yet the very idea that these barbarians might someday invade and conquer China scarcely crossed the mind of any but a thoughtful few. Across this stage of international conflict and intrigue wanders a completely unlikely couple, the Jurchen princess Abiya, shipwrecked on the island of Hirado, and the minor samurai Katsura Shosuke, charged with returning her to her North China homeland. Neither has any inkling that they will soon become caught up in events that will shape the history of East Asia, and will bear witness to the birth of two remarkable and enduring regimes. The Manchus will rule over China until the imperial system is overthrown in 1911, while the Togukawa shoguns hold sway over Japan until the Meiji restoration of 1868. An epic of colorful characters animating pivotal events taken straight from documented history, The Tatar Whirlwind was penned by Japan's most popular writer of historical fiction and rendered in a masterful and accurate translation by a noted scholar of East Asian history.

The Tatar Whirlwind: A Novel of Seventeenth-Century East Asia

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Floating World Editions

Taiwan kikō (Kaidō o yuku) (Japanese Edition)

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Asahi Shinbunsha

Shinsengumi Keppu Roku [in Japanese Language]

Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.

Fūjinshō (Japanese Edition)

Chuo Koronsha

"Drunk as a Lord" is the life story of a poet-turned-daimyo, who, although he is a man of culture, is also a brazen alcoholic with a vicious bite when it comes to debate. Outwardly a "loyalist" of the emperor, his undying debt of gratitude to the Tokugawa - the third and final military house to rule Japan - puts him in a compromising position: move with the trend of the times, or go against it. The second story, "The Fox-Horse," tells of the brilliant lord of Satsuma, his tragic death, and the envious younger brother who seeks to take his place. In a show of "carrying on" his elder brother's legacy, the younger one marches to Kyoto - and later to Edo - at the head of a great army to push for reform. Without his brother's intellect, foresight, or understanding of national affairs, however, he ends up making an ass of himself. "Date's Black Ship" is the captivating account of a lantern repairman from the dregs of castle-town society who is hired by the daimyo - a man obsessed with Western novelties - to construct a full-scale replica of one of Perry's black ships, and the extraordinary ordeals he faces in doing so. "The Ghost of Saga," the fourth and final story, focuses on a bizarre old lord who is so gung ho about arming his domain in the Western style that he sidesteps the law and becomes involved in smuggling. Taking advantage of Nagasaki, the only port in Japan where such activities would have been possible in those days, he stockpiles an unimaginable array of weapons, all under a shroud of complete secrecy.

Drunk as a Lord: Samurai Stories

Kato, Eileen

Genre Fiction

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shiba, Ryōtarō. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shiba, Ryōtarō