I started writing Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai thirty years ago, while living in a small, ramshackle apartment near the Shimokitazawa district of Tokyo. During the six years it took me to complete the novel, I often felt as if I were living in the Edo era — and a very strange feeling it was!

One of the most memorable times I had while writing the book was my first trip to Kochi, and my chance encounter with Mr. Mamoru Matsuoka, who took me in his Jeep to some of the historical sites, including Takechi Hanpeita’s house and gravesite, and the home of the late Mr. Masao Tanaka, at Shibamaki, in the mountains northwest of the city.

Mr. Tanaka was a direct descendent of a boyhood friend of Ryoma’s. Following is an excerpt from the Preface to Ryoma:

In front of the Tanaka house with Mr. Tanaka (far left); my Japanese teacher Mrs. Tae Moriyama, a Kochi native; and Mr. Matsuoka

The house was the same one that Ryoma often visited in his youth, and where he apparently stopped, in need of cash, on the outset of a subversive journey he made in 1861 as the envoy of a revolutionary party leader [i.e., Takechi Hanpeita]. “My family lent Ryoma money at that time,” the elderly Mr. Tanaka told me, as we stood atop a giant rock behind the house [八畳岩= Hachijo-iwa], looking out at the Pacific Ocean far in the distance. Mr. Tanaka informed me that Ryoma liked to sit atop this same rock when he visited the Tanaka family, . . . where he would indulge in wild talk of one day sailing across the ocean to foreign lands. “Ryoma never repaid the money, so I guess he still owes us,” Mr. Tanaka joked.

View from Hachijo-iwa

For updates about new content, connect with me on Facebook.

---

Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, the only biographical novel about him in English, is available on Amazon.com.

Over the past few months I’ve done something that I have not done in many years: I’ve put aside my writing to promote it. From a reader’s perspective, it might sound blasphemous; from the writer’s perspective it’s an imperative – which I ignored for around ten years while writing Samurai Revolution and my next book, Samurai Assassins, completed earlier this year but not yet published.

And so, while planning strategy for the Sakamoto Ryoma Film Project which I recently announced through an Open Letter to “all Ryoma fans,” I’ve presented Samurai Revolution at two venues in Washington state this week: Kinokuniya Bookstore in Seattle and A Book For All Seasons in Leavenworth; and I have another presentation scheduled at Kinokuniya in San Francisco on August 1.

Through these events I’ve rediscovered the pleasure of talking about this history and my books with interested people. Two such people are kendo instructor Aniceto Seto and his student Lynn Miyauchi, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Seattle event. Both of them brought copies of my past books for me to sign, including hard cover copies of Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, though it’s been out of print for over ten years. It is through people like Mr. Seto and Ms. Miyauchi that I am reminded of another imperative: that I really must get back to my writing as soon as possible.

Signing copies for Aniceto Seto and Lynn Miyauchi

For updates about new content, connect with me on Facebook.