The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu [Paperback]

Ryotaro Shiba (Author), Juliette Winters Carpenter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2004

In Ryotaro Shiba's account of the life of Japan's last shogun, Perry's arrival off the coast of Japan was merely the spark that ignited the cataclysm in store for the Japanese people and their governments. It came to its real climax with the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the event which forms the centerpiece of this book. The Meiji Restoration-as history calls it-toppled the shogunate, and brought a seventeen-year-old boy emperor back from the secluded Imperial Palace in Kyoto to preside over what amounted to a political and cultural revolution. With this, Japan's extraordinary self-modernization began in earnest. Coming to power just as the Tokugawa regime was suffering the worst military defeat in its history, Yoshinobu strongly suspected that the rule of the Tokugawas-the third and longest lived of Japan's three warrior governments - was swiftly becoming an anachronism. During a year of frenetic activity, he overhauled the military systems, reorganized the civil administration, promoted industrial development, and expanded foreign intercourse, with the farsighted aim of creating a unified Japan. Alarmed by these reforms, pro-imperial interests moved against him, precipitating the Boshin Civil War and the final defeat of the shogunal armies. To the surprise of his enemies, Yoshinobu capitulated. It was this surrender of authority at a crucial point that made the transfer of sovereignty relatively peaceful. He then retired to Mito and lived quietly for the rest of his life, studying the new art of photography. Ennobled a prince in the new European-style nobility of the Meiji era, he died in 1913.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The life story of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913), the 15th and final successor to the powerful Tokugawa shogunate, is intrinsically interesting and well written to boot. Narrated by Japan's popular and prolific Ryotaro Shiba, and translated into a spare and engaging English text by Juliet Winters Carpenter, The Last Shogun is a mesmerizingly good read. With isolationist Japan coming under increasing foreign pressure to open its bolted doors and civil war threatening from within, Yoshinobu lived, schemed, and ruled during a time of great historic consequence. His rise to power is recounted with narrative flair, from his birth in the least prestigious of the three Tokugawa family branches, through his rigorous early training (his father made him sleep with a sword at either side of his head to ensure that he wouldn't toss and turn), and into his shogun years. From there, Shiba details the military crises of a dying regime and how Yoshinobu attempted to stem the assaults of a new era. With the behind-the-scenes machinations of intrigue, the progression of internal and external pressures, the political personalities of the times, and the rich cultural flavor of an insular Japan, the story is gripping enough for a long plane flight--yet it's more than just a way to pass the travel time. Reading Ryotaro Shiba's account of Yoshinobu's life provides a wonderful backdrop for a present-day visit to Japan, painting a scene that's drenched in the ambiance of Japanese traditions while offering an understanding of Japan's complex history in the form of a rich and compelling James Micheneresque narrative. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

As the late Shiba admits, the story of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913) the 15th and last shogun of Japan, is not one that "lends itself easily to retelling" even for those very familiar with the history of the shogunate?the military, as opposed to the civil, government that ruled Japan. Yoshinobu seems to have anticipated that the political system that would make him shogun was an unwieldy relic?a prediction that was validated by his tenure of only two years. His reluctance seemed straightforward enough, yet numerous political assignations and assassinations, the threat and allure of the West as embodied in U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's ship anchored in Edo Bay, and the warring factions of the crumbling shogunate prompted several abrupt about-faces, which surprised even his closest advisers. This is the first complete work of the historical novelist and newspaper reporter Shiba (1923-1996) to be translated into English. Immensely prodigious and popular in Japan, Shiba writes with an easy if occasionally lugubrious style?"Keiki was as uncomfortable as if he had caught a whiff of his father's viscera." His confident omniscience, complete with reconstructed dialogue, may not travel well, but his curiosity about and keen observation of the human condition will. He manages to make his subject's convoluted twists and turns quite palatable to Meiji-era neophytes.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (August 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568363567
• ISBN-13: 978-1568363561
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #209,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's worthwile to know historical recoginition of Japanese., July 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (Hardcover)

Though I have not read the English version of the book, I'd like to comment on this book through my knowledge of the original as follows.

Those who are interested in Japanese history or an aspect of Japanese recognition of its history would be recommended to read this book by Rotaro Shiba, English translation from Japanese original "Saigo No Shogun".

You can see the Japanese style revolutionary transfer of the power without physical battles in the Edo-Meiji periods to open up the nation and to cope with the West through the hero's personality, Yoshinobu (Keiki) Tokugawa.

The thinking way of the hero might be applicable even in the present Japanese politics.

The author of The Last Shogun, Ryotaro Shiba has a formidable reputation in Japan as a popular historical books, and had a strong criticizer towards the Japanese Imperial Army through his own experience as an Army's tank soldier.

He wrote numerous historical books in Japan and most of them are wi! dely read and are respected by the average Japanese, but this is the first translation of his masterpieces.

"Yoshinobu Tokugawa-Saigo No Shogun" is now on the NHK TV in Japan, and have a great popularity among Japanese, as it is said the period of the third "Revolitionary Change of Japan, next to the Meiji Restortion in 1868 and the Defeat of the WW2 in 1945.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yoshinobu an Enigmatic Figure Central to the Restoration, October 6, 1998

By 

Ken Grindall ([e-mail]) (San Francisco, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (Hardcover)

The Meiji Restoration is a pivotal event in world history, and ironically one of the least understood. Of all the Asian nations only Japan can claim never to have been colonized by one of the western powers. The Last Shogun demonstrates how Japan made the jump from a society living with 16th century technology and culture to a rapidly industrializing nation capable of defeating a european power in war within the span of one lifetime. Tokugawa Yoshinobu was a person living in the depths of that transformation, and his story shows us that this revolution in culture and attitudes in Japan was far more painful and traumatic than most westerners realize. As the Shogun at the moment of restoration of power to the Emperor, Tokugawa Yoshinobu's place in history is assured. The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu was a well written, almost purely historical telling of the crumbling of traditional authority and the creation of a new state, told from the perspective of the individual who surrendered power to the throne, betraying his own advisers, retainers, and vassals, so that the new Japan could emerge with the least bloodshed and suffering. Rarely do we find books that concentrate not on the glorious victor but the sly politician who realizes that his nation can only win if he himself looses. I recommend this book, by one of Japan's best loved authors to anyone interested in Japanese History.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, Dramatic Story of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, December 1, 2000

By 

Keith L. Goode "Keith L. Goode" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu (Hardcover)

Ryotaro Shiba has a dramatic, almost hypnotic way of relaying the life of the last shogun, who relinquished his title almost as soon as he received it.

Keiki, as he is known throughout the majority of the book, is an interesting character -- hard-headed, determined, wise, and eloquent. From his birth into the Mito clan until his ascension to the title of shogun, he was assisted or hampered by various subterfuges. His father, Nariaki, had believed from Keiki's early youth that he would become shogun and worked diligently to put him in a position to attain that goal. Many anti-Mito groups, however, worked toward the very opposite goal of ostracizing him from the bakufu (military government). Many died in helping him, and many died in hindering him. Once in the ultimate seat of power during the reign of the Tokugawas, Yoshinobo showed his great wisdom by relinquishing Japan's governing power back to the Emperor, launching Japan into the modern world. Thus, roughly 300 years of self-determined isolation for Japan ended.

Ryotaro Shiba does an excellent job of providing all of the pertinent information, but he does an even better job of engaging the reader in the life and inner-workings of Keiki. If he does as good a job with other figures in Japanese history, I can't wait until future translations are released. For history that reads like fiction, this is the perfect book.