Library

Ryotaro Shiba is famous for his historical novels and is known as the "national writer" in Japan. His works have the influence to shape the Japanese people's view of history. This book uses the historical events involved in Ryotaro Shiba's works as an entry point, and re-examines Japanese history and the image of the Japanese in the order of the Warring States Period, the end of the Shogunate, the Meiji Era, and the early Showa Period, and interprets Ryotaro Shiba's historical views one by one, as well as the message he conveys to today's readers.

Ryoma Sakamoto is a well-known figure in the history of the Bakumatsu Restoration, but his true identity is still shrouded in mystery. What inspired Sakamoto Ryoma's ideological change? As a low-level samurai in the remote Tosa domain, where did his vigorous political energy come from? And after the Edo shogunate decided to return the power, who killed him? The real Sakamoto Ryoma was not an otherworldly ideological pioneer, but a civilian hero full of fireworks. His adventure in the political situation at the end of the Tokugawa relied not only on the moral principles and courage of the samurai, but also on the business acumen and way of life of the businessman. Ryoma Sakamoto's personal history of struggle is also a history about how Japan's business spirit and political trends at the end of the Tokugawa era broke the feudal status order.