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C Phillip's avatar

Wow! This is a superb post. I love reading Japanese history. I’ve been meaning to watch Shogun and now your post has really motivated me :D

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Alison Stuart's avatar

I hope you enjoy it! It’s not an easy watch but understanding the history behind the story might help.

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Ebony Oaten's avatar

Loving (and also looking away when I can) Shogun. I love the intrigue and politics, it's like living inside a game of chess.

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Alison Stuart's avatar

That is an excellent analogy and beneath the gentility and the mannered life, lay ruthlessness and an almost careless disregard for life.

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Ebony Oaten's avatar

When he draws them a map of their known world, and explains the way other nations are dividing the 'new world' into pieces.

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Jill Warner's avatar

Have you read Susan Spann's Hiro Hattori/Shinobi Mysteries series? Absolutely incredible.

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Alison Stuart's avatar

I haven't but a book I read recently was by a Japanese crime writer of the 'golden age' (ie he was writing in the 20s and 30s): The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo. It was a classic 'locked room' mystery and one of a series featuring 'Detective Kindaichi'. An excellent translation and a good, solid mystery!

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Joanne Tracey's avatar

Thanks Alison, I found this really fascinating.

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Alison Stuart's avatar

It's a history we in the west know so little about. As a student of the English Civil Wars, what was happening in Japan had its parallels in Europe. I found it interesting how heavily Clavell leaned into the true story! His research was impeccable.

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