Stranger in the Shogun's City
A Woman’s Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2020, a vivid work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman in Edo - now known as Tokyo - and a portrait of a great city on the brink of momentous change
'Compelling... Deeply absorbing' Guardian
The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in 1804 in a village in Japan's snow country and was expected to lead a life much like her mother's. Instead - after three divorces and with a temperament much too strong-willed for her family's approval - she ran away to follow her own path in Edo, the city we now call Tokyo.
Stranger in the Shogun's City is a rare, captivating portrait of one woman as she endeavours to recreate herself and her life, and provides a window into the drama and excitement of Japan at a pivotal moment in history.
'Marvellous... Stanley builds up a picture of Tsuneno's world, immersing us in an experience akin to time travel' TLS
* Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography 2020 *
* Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography 2021 *
* Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography *
* Longlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown *
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Northwestern University history professor Stanley debuts with an evocative and deeply researched portrait of 19th-century Japan through the events of one woman's life in the decades before Commodore Perry's 1853 arrival and the opening of the country to the West. Drawing from a collection of family papers, Stanley recreates the life of Tsuneno, "the loudest, the most passionate" daughter of a Buddhist priest, from her birth in a farming village in 1804; to her first marriage, at age 12; her long-awaited departure for Edo (present-day Tokyo) in her late 30s; her fourth and final marriage, to an unsteady samurai; and her death in 1853. Stanley documents numerous misfortunes endured by Tsuneno, including being raped by the man who escorted her over the mountains to Edo, being forced to take menial jobs, and wearing one unlined robe for months as her angry brother refused to ship her clothes to her. And yet, Stanley argues, "wise, brilliant, skillful" Tsuneno "always claimed what was hers." 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. Japanophiles and readers of women's history will be entranced.
Customer Reviews
Beautiful
An insightful portrait!