Ryoma : Life of a Renaissance Samurai

by Hillsborough, Romulus

• ISBN13: 9780966740172
• ISBN10: 0966740173
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Ridgeback Pr

Summary

Set in Meivi Restoration Era (mid-19th century Japan) during the last years of Tokugawa Shogunate, this is the first English language literary biography of samurai Sakamoto Ryoma, a founder of modern Japan.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix	(1)
Map of Japan	x	(1)
Map of Kyoto	xi	(1)
Acknowledgments	xii	(2)
Note on Japanese Pronunciation	xiv	(1)
Author's Note	xv	(1)
Preface	xvi
Prologue	1	(2)
PART 1: FORGING THE DRAGON	3	(68)
Black Ships	4	(19)
An Awakening	23	(8)
In the Wake of the Storm	31	(12)
The Tosa Loyalist Party	43	(12)
Choshu Han	55	(16)
PART II: FLIGHT OF THE DRAGON	71	(194)
The Clean Emptiness of Freedom	72	(6)
Of Murder and Fratricide	78	(16)
The Dragon Soars	94	(15)
Bloodlust	109	(12)
Persuasion	121	(33)
The Sweltering Summer of Frenzy	154	(31)
The Fall of Master Zuizan	185	(10)
From Ezo to Nagasaki	195	(14)
Choshu Ablaze	209	(40)
"The Harder You Hit Him, the Louder He Roars"	249	(16)
PART III: A DECLARATION OF FREEDOM	265	(339)
The Road to Revolution	266	(32)
The Perilous Brink of Freedom	298	(42)
The Secret Alliance, or Into the Dragon's Lair	340	(14)
Attack At the Teradaya	354	(17)
Of Sorrow and Celebration	371	(15)
War: "The Most Amusing Thing I've Ever Done"	386	(22)
Impasse	408	(11)
Deception	419	(11)
Onwards and Upwards	430	(38)
The Iroha Maru Incident	468	(25)
The Great Plan At Sea	493	(22)
Wine, Women and the Specter of War	515	(35)
Guns and Glory	550	(14)
A Declaration of Freedom	564	(29)
The Price of Freedom	593	(10)
Epilogue	603	(1)
Glossary	604	(5)
Index	609