Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai and the Sakamoto Ryoma Film Project

Meiji Restoration hero Sakamoto Ryoma is a national icon in Japan. My first encounter with Ryoma was through Shiba Ryotaro’s popular biographical novel, Ryoma ga Yuku. So fascinated was I by Ryoma’s life story, particularly his indispensible role in the “samurai revolution at the dawn of modern Japan,” that I thought that people all over the world should know about him. Which was why I wrote Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai (Ridgeback Press, 1999), the only biographical novel about Ryoma in English. “It is a cultural loss that an historical figure of such magnificent stature has failed to gain the full attention of the Western world,” I wrote in the Preface. Since then, for many years, I have hoped that, through my book, Ryoma would become a household name around the world.

I think that things are moving in that direction. But a film about Ryoma, produced and/or directed by a major Hollywood name, would “seal the deal.” Which is why for these past few years I have reached out to “Ryoma fans” around the world for their ideas to make this dream a reality. Please keep your ideas coming – through my website or my Facebook page.

Think big! Create! Persevere!

Samurai Revolution is a comprehensive history of the Meiji Restoration from the perspective of one of its most important men, Katsu Kaishū, “the shogun’s last samurai.” The only full-length biography of Kaishū in English, it is also, to the best of my knowledge, the only English-language study of the personalities of the other key figures in the “samurai revolution at the dawn of modern Japan.”

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