BOOKS

Unsung Heroes of Old Japan

Unsung Heroes of Old Japan

Isoda Michifumi
Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Japan Library series
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Culture

¥3,200 + tax

ISBN 9784916055767
210 mm x 148 mm / 208 pp. / March 2017

“I have waited eagerly for the day when Unsung Heroes of Old Japan would be translated into English and made available to people around the world. I wrote the book with the faint hope that people might one day become more like the men and women portrayed here. Whether humanity has any universal values, I can’t say. But looking back over the sweep of human history, I am convinced that values like those shown here result in happiness for the individual and society.”
(From ‘Preface to the English edition’ by the author)

True stories of three little-known Japanese of the Edo period who lived lives of sublime selflessness and purity, blurring the boundary between self and others.

Merchant Kokudaya Jūzaburō comes up with a brilliant scheme to rescue his dying town from poverty. He and others go deep into debt, risking all to raise money for the cash-strapped daimyo and receive annual interest in return.

Prodigious scholar and former Zen monk Nakane Tōri refuses a government post and elects to live in abject poverty, weaving sandals. Though perhaps the age's greatest poet, he throws his works into the fire and ends his days teaching in a country village.

Ōtagaki Rengetsu, a noted beauty in Kyoto, loses two husbands and five children. She becomes a Buddhist nun and devotes her life to poetry and pottery. With her savings she feeds the hungry and builds a bridge across Kamo River.

ISODA Michifumi
Michifumi Isoda received a Ph.D. in history from Keio University and is currently a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto. He re-creates the spirits and minds of significant figures from Japan's past through his unceasing appraisal of historical materials and extensive knowledge of socioeconomic history. Hist bestselling novel Bushi no kakeibo: Kaga han gosanyōmono no bakumatsu ishin (A samurai's account book: The accounting officer of the Kaga Domain on the eve of the Meiji Restoration) won the 2003 Shinchō Document Prize, and was subsequently turned into a movie. He has written numerous other works, many of which have received literary awards.

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
History

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥3,200 + tax
ISBN 9784916055767
210 mm x 148 mm / 208 pp. / March 2017

eBook
ISBN 9784866580029 (ePub)
ISBN 9784916055897 (PDF)

CONTENTS
Preface to the English edition
1. Kokudaya Jūzaburō (1719–1777)
2. Nakane Tōri (1694–1765)
3. Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791–1875)
References
About the author

江戸に生きた3人の清冽な日本人の人生を、人気歴史家が資料をもとに緻密に描きあげた感涙必至の物語。1話目にあたる伊達藩吉岡宿の商人・穀田屋十三郎の物語は、映画『殿、利息でござる』(2016年)の原作ともなった。

磯田道史
1970年、岡山県生まれ。実家が鴨方藩重臣の家系だったことから、幼い頃より古文書に興味を持つ。2002年、慶応義塾大学大学院博士課程修了。静岡文化芸術大学教授を経て、現在、国際日本文化研究センター(京都市)准教授。史料を読みこみ、社会経済史的知見を活かして、歴史上の人物の精神を再現する仕事を続けている。ベストセラーとなった『武士の家計簿―「加賀藩御算用者」の幕末維新』は2003年新潮ドキュメント賞受賞、のちに映画化された。他に『天災から日本史を読みなおす』『徳川がつくった先進国日本』など著書多数、多くの賞を受賞している。

*著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。

Original Japanese Edition

無私の日本人

磯田道史 著

文藝春秋 刊

2016/06/10

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