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Title: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened the East by Giles Milton ISBN: 0-374-25385-4 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 18 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (22 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Rather Three-and-a-half Stars
Comment: The writing is pretty good and the text of this book is good for anyone with absolutely no understanding of Japan and the early exploration of the North Pacific. It does paint a rather broad canvas. This is selective and course history -- the bits have been ripped out and pieced together to paint a rather gory and exciting tale. The book really holds your attention and it a rather quick and surprisingly light read --- in that sense it is also a good introduction to the early contact with Japan.
If you like well written, light history, this will keep you turning the pages. If you are interested in using it as a starting point to dropping off in deeper reaches of exploration.
I enjoyed it. I am not sure it is good history however. But if you read enough history, then this is not a problem.
Rating: 2
Summary: Good writing, questionable history
Comment: Like most reviewers before me, I was quite enthralled with the story of William Adams, the foremost Englishman in early Tokugawa Japan period. I supposed the recent released of Shogun on DVD have inspired me to read this book since the main character of that show was based on the titled character. The book was well written but like one reviewer before me stated, it relied totally on European sources which have a tendencies to be very inaccurate or even bias. How can one write anything on Japan at all without Japanese sources. A good example of this was when the author described Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu as "sadistic" for the way he dealt with the Christians. Considering that he was considered as quite an enlightened ruler by many historians, the author totally failed to point out that Iemitsu's actions against the Christians took on a devastating scale only after the Japanese Christians and their padres mounted a full scale revolt at Shimabara Castle in 1637. While considered as a "peasant revolt", primary fighting forces were Christians. This revolt shocked the Tokugawa bakufu to the core which led to drastic reaction. Such oversight like this cheapen the accuracy of the well written words. (What ruler in Europe would not have done the same if a large group of Buddhists joined a large scale revolt against crown and realm??)
While the book was supposed to be on William Adams, it basically centered around the English effort to promote trade with Japan. Ironically, it might be hard to regard this as Adams' biography at all. He seem to be a background character a lot of time. What really hurt this book was that the author appears to be totally unfamiliar with Japanese history and totally lacks Japanese sources. Would a book on English history be any worth if there was no English sources?? Two stars for good writing and entertaining reading material though, can't fault the man's skill with the English language!
PS: In that revolt mentioned above, Dutch provided a warship that help pummeled that revolt to the ground. It was probably one of the major reasons why the Dutch kept their trade base opened while all other European powers did not.
Rating: 4
Summary: Vivid account of the early Japanese-European encounter
Comment: The book spans the time between the Portuguese navigator Fernão Mendes Pinto first arrived in Kyushu, Japan in 1542 (Pinto was the first European to set foot on Japan) till the time of the English pilot William Adams' death in 1690 at Adams' age of 55. Pinto's own records as well as Francis Xavier's (Spanish Jesuit missionary) are used to describe Japan during the time of Pinto. William Adams' ship log was used to reconstruct his voyage to Japan. Adams' ascension in the shogun's (Tokugawa Ieyasu) court is treated rather lightly through his own, scant records. The remaining half of the book roughly follows Richard Cocks' (an English Merchant who arrived in Japan later than Adams) account of events. This is first and foremost a maritime history. Though Japanese culture, domestic military struggles (Ieyasu's victory over the 4 regents, and over Hideyori -- Hideyoshi Toyotomi's son; Ieyasu had been appointed as the regent for Hideyori -- in Osaka) are covered, the emphasis lies on the voyages and the trades the 4 competing Europe powerhouses (Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England) made during this time span. Detailed descriptions of trades these four countries made at/with Bantam (Indonesia), Ayutthaya (Thailand), Moluccas (or "Spice Islands" in Indonesia), Macao, Ming Dynasty are plentiful. Also found abundant are: records of power struggles among these European countries, internal correspondences of the East India Company, and the vulgarities of the European sailors.
Given the title of the book I expected something resembling a biography -- I expected more first-hand accounts of Adams or clearer focus on him. However the book did not turn out to be a disappointment. To the contrary it was greatly entertaining to read maritime history weaved with individual voices. Later on I began to suspect that the publishers and not the author had named the book. The obnoxiousness of the subtitle "the Englishman who opened Japan" is my reason as of why.
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Title: Nathaniel's Nutmeg by Giles Milton ISBN: 0140292608 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Big Chief Elizabeth : The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America by Giles Milton ISBN: 0312420188 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 19 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Great Wave : Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan by Christopher Benfey ISBN: 0375503277 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville, the World's Greatest Traveller by Giles Milton ISBN: 031242129X Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title:Shogun ASIN: B0000A2ZNX Publisher: Paramount Home Video Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $79.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $59.99 |
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