Product Description

Taiko is a Kodansha International publication.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203293 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-28
• Original language: Japanese
• Dimensions: 1.47" h x 6.23" w x 8.49" l, 2.44 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 940 pages

From Library Journal
In the final decades of the 16th century, the Japanese shogunate is crumbling: As rival warlords jockey for position, their armies ravaging the land, Western ideas and weapons threaten traditional ways. "This is a world so grim that you may have to kill or be killed in the time it takes to pick up your chopsticks. Yesterday's ally is today's enemy." Toyotomi Hideyoshi, son of a poor farmer, aspires to serve the emperor as samurai. Through talent, energy, and dedication, he rises to the position of Taiko, absolute ruler of Japan in the emperor's name. This novel is filled with striking martial images: a warrior's "breast . . . like a tightly strung bow, pulled taut by innumerable emotions and strategies"; the "plain . . . covered with a thin veil of gunpowder smoke and filled with the stink of corpses and blood. With the morning sun, it smoldered with all the colors of the rainbow." A vibrant tale of heroic deeds and black villainy that brings to life distant times and people.
- David Keymer, California State Univ., Stanislaus
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Something for everyone-history, romance, acts of great loyalty and treachery, monumental battle scenes...highly recommended." -San Francisco Chronicle

"Eiji Yoshikawa's epic is the real thing, the insider's guide to one of the most periods in Japanese history." -New York Newsday

"A unique opportunity for Western readers to explore a time, a man and the creation of modern Japan from a genuinely Japanese perspective." -The Washington Times

"A vibrant tale of heroic deeds and black villainy that brings to life distant times and people" -Library Journal

Ingram
This sweeping, fast-paced narrative combines the panoramic spectacle of a Kurosawa epic with a vivid evocation of 16th-century Japan, as it tells of three men who dream of uniting a nation where rival warlords battle for supremacy. Yoshikawa is the author of the international bestseller Musashi. drawings.