Synopsis
A biography of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913), the 15th and last shogun of Japan, written by a prominent Japanese novelist and reporter.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-05-01 | | Series: | LAST SHOGUN | | Editor: | Deborah Baker |
| Size | | Length: | 255 pages | | Height: | 8.8 in | | Width: | 5.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 16.8 oz |
Publisher's Note
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.
Industry Reviews
This work illuminates the life of one of the most significant figures in Japanese history, Yoshinobu, the 15th and last Tokugawa Shogun. For over two centuries the Tokugawas were the real rulers of Japan, though during this era a faction that even included Tokugawa members supported the overthrow of Shogunal rule and the restoration of political power to the emperor. Yoshinobu assumed the Shogunate in 1867, during the time of uncertainty and faltering confidence that followed the opening of Japan to the West. During the year that he was Shogun, Yoshinobu expanded foreign contacts and reshaped the government along Western lines, but when challenged by the faction seeking to restore power to the emperor, Yoshinobu retired to his native city to pursue his varied interests. Shiba's narrative historical studies are very popular in Japan, and this is his first completed work to be translated into English. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with significant holdings in Japanese history. Robert James Andrews, Duluth P.L., MN
Chafe
As the late Shiba admits, the story of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913) the 15th and last shogun of Japan, is not one that "lends itself easily to retelling" even for those very familiar with the history of the shogunate the military, as opposed to the civil, government that ruled Japan. Yoshinobu seems to have anticipated that the political system that would make him shogun was an unwieldy relic a prediction that was validated by his tenure of only two years. His reluctance seemed straightforward enough, yet numerous political assignations and assassinations, the threat and allure of the West as embodied in U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's ship anchored in Edo Bay, and the warring factions of the crumbling shogunate prompted several abrupt about-faces, which surprised even his closest advisers. This is the first complete work of the historical novelist and newspaper reporter Shiba (1923-1996) to be translated into English. Immensely prodigious and popular in Japan, Shiba writes with an easy if occasionally lugubrious style "Keiki was as uncomfortable as if he had caught a whiff of his father's viscera." His confident omniscience, complete with reconstructed dialogue, may not travel well, but his curiosity about and keen observation of the human condition will. He manages to make his subject's convoluted twists and turns quite palatable to Meiji-era neophytes. (May)
Lopate
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