MASAMUNE

Date Masamune is one of the most popular warriors in Japanese history: the "One-Eyed Dragon" of the north, with a golden crescent moon on his helmet and a black patch over his eye. He is the hero of novels, television dramas, and video games, and his armor is said to have inspired Darth Vader.

He probably never wore the eyepatch.

The real Masamune was born in 1567 and lost an eye to smallpox as a child. At eighteen, he became head of his family. In five years of almost constant war, he massacred a castle to frighten his neighbors, lost his father in a kidnapping, survived a battle against an army four times the size of his own, and conquered much of northeastern Japan — just as Toyotomi Hideyoshi was ending the age of independent warlords.

Then he spent the rest of his life surviving. He arrived late for Hideyoshi's summons, dressed, it is said, in the white robe of a man ready to die — and was forgiven. Accused of plotting rebellion, he talked his way out with a story about a wagtail's eye. He sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu, was promised a million koku of land, and lost the promise by scheming for more. He founded the city of Sendai, sent his own ship across the Pacific and an envoy to the Pope in Rome, and died an honored elder of the shogunate, writing poems about his white hair.

Told as a narrative history from beginning to end, with a cast of characters, a map, and a travel guide to the places you can still visit today, this book says plainly what the records show, what historians still debate, and which famous stories are only legends.

Inside, you'll find:

The boy who lost an eye, and the legend of the knife
The massacre at Odemori, the death of his father, and the battle of Hitotoribashi
Suriagehara, and the conquest that came almost too late
His mother, his brother, and the truth behind the poison story
The white robe at Odawara, and the staff on his neck
The wagtail's eye, and the uprising he probably did encourage
The million-koku promise, and the founding of Sendai
The ship to Mexico, and Hasekura's journey to Spain and Rome
Osaka, Yukimura's daughter, and the old dragon in a time of peace
The eyepatch he never wore, and what his grave revealed
A guide to visiting the places in this story today, from Aizu and Yonezawa to Sendai and Matsushima
If you want only the one-eyed dragon of the video games, this is not your book. If you want the real story of the man behind the eyepatch — ruthless, charming, reckless, and always surviving — turn the page and meet the real Masamune.