Home › Books › Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman a…
Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World
by
98/99
Critics' Rating Index
14/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
95/99
Volume of Reviews
68/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
A work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo—the city that would become Tokyo—and a portrait of a great city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West.The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother's. But after three divorces, she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo. In the book we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry's fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno's life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture—and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions.
Reviews
"The couple squabble, divorce, and remarry, and Tsuneno's fortunes continue their erratic, fascinating fall and rise and fall ..."
"Stranger in the Shogun's City is as close to a novel as responsible history can be ..."
"Stanley fills in the blanks of Tsuneno's letters and diary entries with well-informed speculation about her daily life and atmospheric descriptions of corrupt and sophisticated Edo during the Tokugawa shogunate."
"Stanley works hard throughout this compelling book to make Tsuneno into a feminist heroine, a brilliant girl born ahead of her time who 'always claimed what was hers'."
"Despite hunger, cold, illness, and betrayal, she persisted, determined to achieve the independence she desperately desired ..."
"Tsuneno belongs to a vanished world, but historian Stanley brings both her and the Japanese city of Edo back to life in this breathtaking work ..."
"previously brief flashes of Tsuneno's willful personality spark into a blaze."
"Stanley brings all this vividly to life—clothing, laundry, the pecking order, right down to salaries and prices and precisely what people of different incomes could and couldn't afford ..."
"Nearly 90 pages of notes, bibliography and indexing attest to Stanley's diligent and painstaking research ..."
"Where there are gaps, Stanley has supplemented the narrative with rigorous research and expert supposition."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!