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In this novel Edward Seidensticker has woven three tales of Hanshichi,
a fictional police detective in Tokugawa Japan into a smooth tale that
will
intrigue readers wanting to learn a bit about Tokyo in the latter part
of the Tokugawa era, about police methods and about the society of that
time.
The character of Hanshichi was created by Okamoto
Kido (1872 - 1939). Sixty-eight stories of Hanshichi's exploits were
published by Okamoto Kido between 1917 and 1936.
Seidensticker has taken three of the stories
and created a novel in which Hanshichi works methodically on the three
cases at the same time. These are not the usual chambara sword slashing
samurai tales of Japan that are so common and so popular. Hanshichi
takes his time and methodically does his work. The reader thus has time
to view something of what Edo (Tokyo) was in those long ago days.
Okamoto was a writer better known for his work in
the kabuki theater. In his day he was a modernizer combining the
realistic characterization of Western theatre with the visual beauty of
kabuki.
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Publisher: Printed Matter
Press
Author: Edward G. Seidensticker
ISBN: 1-933606-03-7
Year published: 2006
Pages: 143 Page size: 140x215mm
Binding: Paperback
Base price: Yen 1,500++
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Japan
& East Asia
JEPPstandard
1,000s of English publications from or on |
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