Why a Booktrail?
Destination: Tokyo Departure Time: 1860s
1868. In Japan’s exotic pleasure quarters, sex is for sale and the only forbidden fruit is love …
The Courtesan and the Samurai
What you need to know before your trail
The age of the emperors has arrived but there is a band of loyalists who plan to make one last stand against the new regime.
Hana is 17, the daughter of a samurai. When her husband goes off to war, she is left to fend for herself but loneliness and fear are the least of her worries.
This novel is set in 1868/69, during the period of civil war (known as the Meiji Restoration) between the shogunate forces (the northerners) and the imperial Japanese forces (the southerners).
Travel Guide
Meiji Restoration
This is the Japan of the late 1860s – a Japan where a samurai wife/daughter was expected to lead a certain life and a certain lifestyle. She becomes a courtesan wife in order to survive.
At the time of the Meji restoration, Tokyo was known as Edo. It was a city on the edge, separated by the Shogunate forces from the north and the Japanese forces from the south were at war with each other. This is a country in turmoil and its very core is being shaken, tested and beaten like never before.
The language adds to the overall atmosphere of the time and place, of the ornate and sumptuous clothes the women wore “women in dresses shaped like temple bells”.
Ancient v modern:
The image of a samurai sword splits a bullet in half shows the contrast between two cultures, one culture splitting in two, Shattering for ever. Modern v ancient religious customs. Change and not always for the better. And amidst the romance is war.
The food
The food is rich, traditional and very much a part of the culture. Men and people are described in food like terms. A man’s head for example is “like a tangerine balanced on top of a pumpkin-sized rice cake”
Where Next?
