'A terrific overview of Japan's long and rich history... covers an astonishing amount of ground' PETER FRANKOPAN Japan is a country of islands, strung like a necklace around the Asian mainland... Ever since US Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open its borders in 1853, the culture of this remarkable and distant archipelago has enriched western life. At the same time the country has embraced foreign institutions from baseball to barber shops. Yet for centuries under the rule of the sh...

Japan, 1865, the women's palace in the great city of Edo.Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man - the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen to be his concubine.But Japan is changing, and as civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her; but this is a world in which private passions have no pl...

De vrouw van de shogun is de prequel van Downers bestseller De laatste concubine en vormt samen met haar andere twee boeken het Shogun-kwartet.Japan, 1853. Als dochter van de Satsuma-clan heeft de mooie, koppige Okatsu geleerd om paard te rijden, het zwaard te hanteren en nergens bang voor te zijn. Maar als ze zeventien is gebeurt er iets wat haar lot voorgoed zal bepalen: voor de kust van Japan verschijnen vier westerse o...

'A persuasive storyteller and the setting is mesmerising' Antonia Senior, The Times_________________The year is 1853, and a young Japanese girl’s world is about to be turned upside down.When black ships carrying barbarians arrive on the shores of Japan, the Satsuma clan’s way of life is threatened. But it’s not just the samurai who must come together to fight: the beautiful, headstrong Okatsu is also given a...

Discover the aesthetic traditions, political resilience, and modern economic might of this singular island nation. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read.Zen, haiku, martial arts, sushi, anime, manga, film, video games . . . Japanese culture has long enriched our Western way of life. Yet from a Western perspective, Japan remains a remote island country that has long had a complicated relationship with the o...

Japan, 1868. Hana is nog maar zeventien wanneer haar echtgenoot het leger in gaat en zij alleen achterblijft. Al snel wordt haar huis geplunderd door vijandige soldaten en moet ze vluchten voor haar leven. Ze vindt uiteindelijk onderdak in de Yoshiwara, de Stad Zonder Nacht. In die beruchte rosse buurt van Tokio, waar drieduizend courtisanes leven, moet ook zij haar lichaam te koop aanbieden om het hoofd boven water te kunnen houden. Daar ontmoet ze Yozo, een avonturier en briljant zwaardv...

Dans le Japon du XIXe siècle, la vie d’Okatsu bascule le jour où elle est choisie pour intégrer la cour impériale. Élevée parmi les samouraïs, la jeune femme renonce à tout – sa famille, son amour d'enfance et sa liberté – pour accomplir son destin.À la cour, elle connaît une ascension sociale fulgurante qui la mène jusqu’au « Palais des femmes », parmi les concubines de l'empereur. Elle est désormais au cœur du pouvoir et de ses intrigues.Mais bientôt, des navires étranger...

1868. In Japan's exotic pleasure quarters, sex is for sale and the only forbidden fruit is love ...Hana is just seventeen when her husband goes to war, leaving her alone and vulnerable. When enemy soldiers attack her house she flees across the shattered city of Tokyo and takes refuge in the Yoshiwara, its famous pleasure-quarters.There she is forced to become a courtesan.Yozo, brave, loyal ...

In the brave new Japan of the 1870s, Taka and Nobu meet as children and fall in love; but their relationship will test the limits of society.Unified after a bitter civil war, Japan is rapidly turning into a modern country with rickshaws, railways and schools for girls. Commoners can marry their children into any class, and the old hatred between north and south is over - or so it seems.Taka is from the powerful southern Satsuma clan which now dominates the ...

Two cultures. One man and one woman. One moment in time.Cultures collide when Okichi, a beautiful geisha, is sent to work for the American envoy in Japan. Age and pride meet youth and grace. How will she survive in a home where no one speaks her language, where she understands nothing and she must submit to a strange barbarian's will?

Dans le Japon du XIXe siècle, la vie d’Okatsu bascule le jour où elle est choisie pour intégrer la cour impériale. Elevée parmi les samouraïs, la jeune femme doit renoncer à tout – sa famille, son amour d'enfance et sa liberté – afin d’accomplir son destin.A la cour, elle connaît une ascension sociale fulgurante. Son chemin la mène jusqu’au « Palais des femmes », parmi les concubines de l'empereur, au cœur du pouvoir et de ses intrigues.Mais bientôt, des navires étrangers, ...

From critically acclaimed author and Japanese scholar Lesley Downer, an enchanting portrait of the mysterious world of the geisha.Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, by geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of extraordinary fictional creations, from Puccini's Madama Butterfly to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geisha's existence, though, whether today...