Wednesday 6 June 2018

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: THE TOKAIDO ROAD by LUCIA ROBSON


Lucia Robson has written acclaimed novels about feisty women of the Old West, (including Native American women) winning both the Owen Wister & Spur awards. In 2011 True West Magazine named her the ‘Best Living Fiction Writer.’ But she tells me her favourite of her own novels is definitely an eastern! She found THE TOKAIDO ROAD, set in Japan in 1702, the most fun to research.

After the execution of her father, the young and beautiful Lady Asano is in grave danger from the powerful Lord Kira. In order to save herself Asano must find Oishi, the leader of the fighting men of her clan. Disguising herself as a traveling priest, and calling herself Cat, she sets off along the fabled Tokaido Road. Her only tools are her quick wits, her samurai training, and her deadly, six foot-long naginata. And she will need them all, for a ronin has been hired to pursue her . . .


A samurai woman


Briefly (and I'm taking most of my information from Wikipedia) the SAMURAI were the military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early modern Japan. A translation of samurai is 'those who serve in close attendance to the nobility.' An early reference to the word samurai appears in an anthology of poems completed in the first part of the 10th century.


The samurai were usually associated with a clan and their lord, and were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. They dominated the Japanese military from the late 12th Century until 1873. In that year Emperor Meiji abolished their right to be the only armed force in Japan, in favour of a more modern, western-style, conscripted army. In the late 19th century the samurai class was abolished. The last samurai conflict was arguably in 1877, during the Satsuma Rebellion in the Battle of Shiroyama.
Maintaining the household was the main duty of women of the samurai class. This was especially crucial during early feudal Japan, when warrior husbands were often traveling abroad or engaged in clan battles. The wife, or okugatasama (‘one who remains in the home’), was left to manage all household affairs, care for the children, and perhaps even defend the home forcibly. For this reason, many women of the samurai class were trained in the use of a weapon called a NAGINATA
naginata is a wooden or metal pole with a curved single-edged blade on the end, similar to the glaive of medieval Europe. The 30 cm to 60 cm long blade is forged in the same manner as traditional Japanese swords. When not in use the blade would be covered with a wooden sheath.


A woman wields a Naginata

Though many samurai women engaged in battle alongside the men, most female warriors (Onna-bugeisha) were not formal samurai. They usually were not allowed to wear two swords.



Ronin (meaning ‘drifter’ or ‘wanderer’) was a samurai without lord or master. He became masterless after the death of his master, or after the loss of his master's favour or privilege.
Historical dramas featuring samurai have long been a staple of Japanese films and television. Arguably the peak of this cycle is THE SEVEN SAMURAI, Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece, one of my top 10 favourite films and arguably the greatest action movie ever made. It was remade into the western THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.


Toshiro Mifune in ‘THE SEVEN SAMURAI’
Another Kurosawa samurai drama, YOJIMBO was transformed into A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. This was actually a circular process as Kurosawa was hugely influenced by the westerns of John Ford. When these two legendary film directors met, Ford allegedly told Kurosawa ‘You really like rain’ to which Kurosawa replied ‘You really like dust.’
Other cross-overs between samurai movies and westerns include RED SUN where a samurai warrior finds himself fighting Comanches and outlaws in the wilds of the west


Toshiro Mifune (again) in ‘RED SUN’
and THE LAST SAMURAI. Here Tom Cruise plays an 1870s U.S. Cavalry officer who goes from fighting Native Americans to aiding the samurai in Japan during the Satsuma Rebellion.


Tom Cruise in action in ‘THE LAST SAMURAI’
I know Lucia Robson will appreciate this: another of Kurosawa’s samurai films THE HIDDEN FORTRESS is held to be a direct influence on STAR WARS.


TOKAIDO ROAD reviews:

‘Best single fiction book I have read about feudal Japan’

‘Beautifully-written story’

‘A strong, realistic heroine’

‘A jewel of a book’


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