Child exile. Teenage runaway. Military genius. Immortal hero. Yoshitsune had little going for him. Exiled to a monastery, he had no money, no allies, and no martial training. He wasn't big or strong or good-looking. His only assets were brains, ambition, and a dream. But childhood dreams can change history. At the age of fifteen, Yoshitsune escaped. Blow by painful blow, he learned the art of the sword. Fall after bruising fall, he mastered mounted archery. He joined his half brother Yoritomo in an uprising against the most powerful samurai in Japan. This is the story of insane courage and daring feats, bitter rivalry and fatal love. Based on one of the great works of Japanese history and literature, Samurai Rising takes a clear-eyed, very modern look at the way of the samurai and at the man who became the most famous samurai of all. - Author website.
Minamoto Yoshitsune …
Child exile. Teenage runaway. Military genius. Immortal hero. Yoshitsune had little going for him. Exiled to a monastery, he had no money, no allies, and no martial training. He wasn't big or strong or good-looking. His only assets were brains, ambition, and a dream. But childhood dreams can change history. At the age of fifteen, Yoshitsune escaped. Blow by painful blow, he learned the art of the sword. Fall after bruising fall, he mastered mounted archery. He joined his half brother Yoritomo in an uprising against the most powerful samurai in Japan. This is the story of insane courage and daring feats, bitter rivalry and fatal love. Based on one of the great works of Japanese history and literature, Samurai Rising takes a clear-eyed, very modern look at the way of the samurai and at the man who became the most famous samurai of all. - Author website.
Minamoto Yoshitsune should not have been a samurai. But his story is legend in this real-life saga. This epic tale of warriors and bravery, rebellion and revenge, reads like a novel, but is the true story of the greatest samurai in Japanese history. When Yoshitsune was just a baby, his father went to war with a rival samurai family and lost. His father was killed, his mother captured, and his brothers sent away. Yoshitsune was raised in his enemy's household until he was sent to live in a monastery. He grew up skinny and small. Not the warrior type. But he did inherit his family pride and when the time came for the Minamoto to rise up against their enemy once again, Yoshitsune was there. His daring feats -- such as storming a fortress by riding on horseback down the side of a cliff -- and his glorious victory at sea, secured Yoshitsune's place in history and his story is still being told centuries later. - Publisher.
First of all, this book has magnificent illustrations at the beginning of every chapter, but it does not stop there. Although it is nonfiction, it reads like a novel. It has more descriptions of the setting than some fiction I have read. I was astounded at how much detail of the events, setting, and characters the author was able to find, considering this all happened at least 800 years ago. The book even allows you to infer the characteristics and emotions of the characters.
The only thing I did not like about Samurai Rising was that it was very slow and dry at times, but that can be expected with a nonfiction history book. It took me 4 days to read it and it was 160 pages.
I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn a lot!
