The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu - Hardcover

Shiba, Ryotaro; Carpenter, Juliet Winters

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568362463 ISBN 13: 9781568362465

Publisher: Kodansha USA Inc, 1998

Synopsis

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

About this title

Review

The life story of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913), the 15th and final successor to the powerful Tokugawa shogunate, is intrinsically interesting and well written to boot. Narrated by Japan's popular and prolific Ryotaro Shiba, and translated into a spare and engaging English text by Juliet Winters Carpenter, The Last Shogun is a mesmerizingly good read. With isolationist Japan coming under increasing foreign pressure to open its bolted doors and civil war threatening from within, Yoshinobu lived, schemed, and ruled during a time of great historic consequence. His rise to power is recounted with narrative flair, from his birth in the least prestigious of the three Tokugawa family branches, through his rigorous early training (his father made him sleep with a sword at either side of his head to ensure that he wouldn't toss and turn), and into his shogun years. From there, Shiba details the military crises of a dying regime and how Yoshinobu attempted to stem the assaults of a new era. With the behind-the-scenes machinations of intrigue, the progression of internal and external pressures, the political personalities of the times, and the rich cultural flavor of an insular Japan, the story is gripping enough for a long plane flight--yet it's more than just a way to pass the travel time. Reading Ryotaro Shiba's account of Yoshinobu's life provides a wonderful backdrop for a present-day visit to Japan, painting a scene that's drenched in the ambiance of Japanese traditions while offering an understanding of Japan's complex history in the form of a rich and compelling James Micheneresque narrative.

About the Author

RYOTARO SHIBA is one of Japan’s bet-loved writers of all time. Working as a newspaper reporter, he began to write 1959 received the Naoki Prize for his novel The Owl Castle. His many works, which often present new interpretation of turbulent times such as the Meiji Restoration, have had enduring success with Japanese readers. He was named a member of the Japan Art Academy in 1981, cited as a person of cultural merit in 1991, and was conferred with Order of Culture in 1993. Shiba died in 1996.

About this edition

• Publisher: Kodansha USA Inc
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1568362463
• ISBN 13: 9781568362465
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 255
• Editor: Baker Deborah