Table of Contents

Plate section faces page 140
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Prologue
1 The Lure of the East
2 A Punishing Passage
3 Life or Death
4 The Shogun Decides
5 The Battle of Sekigahara
6 The Shogun’s Adviser
7 An Exceptional Honour
8 Samurai Life and Nuptials
9 The Battle for Naval Supremacy
10 Trade with the Dutch
11 A Toehold for the Spanish
12 Betrayed
13 A Welcome for the English
14 An Agonizing Decision
15 A Political Earthquake
16 Private Disgrace and Company Debt
17 War and Death
18 Epilogue
Afterword
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Hiromi T. Rogers was born in the Shiba district of central Tokyo into a family of steel manufacturers, headed, unusually in those days, by her redoubtable grandmother. Her ancestors were samurai and from an early age she immersed herself in samurai films and literature. Graduating from Hosei University in 1983, she left Japan for the UK in 1989, initially to improve her English but ultimately obtaining a PhD at the University of Exeter. Hiromi lives in Devon, with her husband a former diplomat. She is also a prize-winning calligrapher and botanical artist.