"Clouds Above the Hill" portrays, in rich detail, the first generation to grow up in the Meiji Era and culminates in Japan's surprising victory in the Russo-Japanese War.
Historical jury still out on Japan's Meiji Restoration
On July 27, 1853, the Tokugawa shogunate was in crisis. Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi passed away from what today is believed to be heat exhaustion at Edo Castle in the heart of Edo, present-day Tokyo. Abe Masahiro, the top samurai bureaucrat under the shogun, had an ...
'The Last Shogun' is a rare translation of Ryotaro Shiba's historical fiction
Ryotaro Shiba was one of Japan's most popular writers of historical fiction, described in Frank Gibney's introduction to "The Last Shogun" as "Japan's national writer ... his name on a book virtually guarantees a wide readership." The Last Shogun Ryotaro ...
