artyemis's review against another edition
3.0
2.5/5
Deludente.
Ammetto di avere un debole per i "romanzi storici" ambientati in Giappone, ma questo di storico ha davvero pochissimo. La narrazione di Yozo è lenta e noiosa, ed in alcuni punti troppo prevedibile (il marito di Hana che ritorna anche se tutti lo davano per morto è un'uscita da Harmony). Per quanto riguarda Hana non mi è piaciuta e non mi ha convinto.
Non critico il fatto che si sia dovuta vendere, infondo aveva poche alternative soprattutto dopo essere stata venduta, ma è fastidioso il fatto che continui ad essere descritta ed a considerarsi lei stessa come diversa dalle altre e "pura" quando di sicuro è tutto tranne che innocente.
Finale scontato poi, speravo in qualcosa di meglio.
Deludente.
Ammetto di avere un debole per i "romanzi storici" ambientati in Giappone, ma questo di storico ha davvero pochissimo. La narrazione di Yozo è lenta e noiosa, ed in alcuni punti troppo prevedibile (il marito di Hana che ritorna anche se tutti lo davano per morto è un'uscita da Harmony). Per quanto riguarda Hana non mi è piaciuta e non mi ha convinto.
Non critico il fatto che si sia dovuta vendere, infondo aveva poche alternative soprattutto dopo essere stata venduta, ma è fastidioso il fatto che continui ad essere descritta ed a considerarsi lei stessa come diversa dalle altre e "pura" quando di sicuro è tutto tranne che innocente.
Finale scontato poi, speravo in qualcosa di meglio.
violetamethyst's review against another edition
2.0
I loved the world building and characters in this book. It was wonderfully done. But the pace of the story was a little off. The couple only meet about halfway through the book and from there on, things seem much more rushed. I liked that we were shown their own individual stories but if not for the blurb at the back of the book, I would have thought I was reading 2 different books.
The worst part was the end... where Yozo just abandons his friends to save Hana and then he's just like... well it was a stupid plan anyway, they're probably all in prison now. There's nothing to hint that he may try to save them.
The author's notes give us a little more insight into what could have happened to those characters but I felt it was pretty inadequate after everything Yozo had been through with them.
The worst part was the end... where Yozo just abandons his friends to save Hana and then he's just like... well it was a stupid plan anyway, they're probably all in prison now. There's nothing to hint that he may try to save them.
The author's notes give us a little more insight into what could have happened to those characters but I felt it was pretty inadequate after everything Yozo had been through with them.
winterzeshoek's review against another edition
3.0
Not as good as The Last Concubine, but still an interesting read. I didn't care much for the romance between the main characters - it was all a bit too fast - but loved the detailed descriptions.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
‘We need to look to the future, not back at the past.’
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).
The novel’s protagonist, Hana, is seventeen when her husband, a commander in the Northern Alliance, leaves her to go to war. Hana is the daughter of a samurai, and her duty as a samurai wife is clear. The northerners are losing, and when the southerners attack her home and she is unable to defend it she flees for her life across the shattered city of Edo (later renamed Tokyo). Hana is first helped, and then sold, by a procuress to become a courtesan in the five streets of the Yoshiwara.
Yozo Tajima returns to Japan after four years in the West, just in time to find the world he left behind in the last throes of destruction. He is captured while travelling north to rejoin his comrades, but escapes and makes his way to the Yoshiwara. Here he meets Hana, and they fall in love. They are, it appears, fated to be together but there are certain obstacles to overcome first.
I enjoyed this novel, more for the rich historical detail than the actual love story between Yozo and Hana. I know little about this period of Japanese history and found this aspect of the novel quite absorbing. The details of the lives of courtesans in Yoshiwara were intriguing, as was Yozo’s story as one of a number of Japanese who spent time in the west.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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).
The novel’s protagonist, Hana, is seventeen when her husband, a commander in the Northern Alliance, leaves her to go to war. Hana is the daughter of a samurai, and her duty as a samurai wife is clear. The northerners are losing, and when the southerners attack her home and she is unable to defend it she flees for her life across the shattered city of Edo (later renamed Tokyo). Hana is first helped, and then sold, by a procuress to become a courtesan in the five streets of the Yoshiwara.
Yozo Tajima returns to Japan after four years in the West, just in time to find the world he left behind in the last throes of destruction. He is captured while travelling north to rejoin his comrades, but escapes and makes his way to the Yoshiwara. Here he meets Hana, and they fall in love. They are, it appears, fated to be together but there are certain obstacles to overcome first.
I enjoyed this novel, more for the rich historical detail than the actual love story between Yozo and Hana. I know little about this period of Japanese history and found this aspect of the novel quite absorbing. The details of the lives of courtesans in Yoshiwara were intriguing, as was Yozo’s story as one of a number of Japanese who spent time in the west.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
janeeyree's review against another edition
3.0
It isn't a bad book, but I was a little bit disappointed. Some parts of the book are dull and not developed as much as they could be. Love-story between Hana and Yozo is quite rushed. Liked the ending though.
pennin's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book! Pretty much flew through it. I loved the historical setting and the characters. The only issue I had was the pacing where the book felt rushed towards the end. It took too long before the two main characters meet that by that point, there wasn't enough time to develop their relationship or the plot that followed. Surprisingly enough I actually enjoyed the insta-love in this book because I was invested in both of the characters prior to them meeting and by extension, ended up rooting for their romance despite the fact that it was underdeveloped.
xsassypants's review against another edition
5.0
《Like the pine and the chrysanthemum that bloomed in winter when other flowers had died, a courtesan's charms endured for ever.》
Once again Lesley Downer proves to be one of my favorite authors EVER.
I don't even know why this book's ratings are so low, honestly.
The accuracy of the facts that are told, the details and the story itself totally mesmerized me.
Two thumbs up!!
ananko's review against another edition
2.0
Ich habe lange vor diesem Buch gestanden und wollte es unbedingt haben.
Allein schon der Titel hat in mir Assoziationen wachgerufen, die mir gesagt haben, das wird ein geniales Buch und auch die Kurzbeschreibung klang in meinen Ohren sehr vielversprechend. Außerdem war mir auch die Autorin ein durchaus positivbehafteter Begriff.
Vielleicht aus genau diesen Gründen und auf der Tatsache basierend, dass ich sehr hohe Erwartungen an dieses Buch hatte, bin ich schwer entäuscht worden.
Die Charaktere waren -meiner Meinung nach- wandelnde Stereotype. Die Handlung leider auch. Sie war vorhersehbar und erfüllte so ziemlich jedes Cliché. Mir fallen nur wenige Dinge aus dieser Kiste jetzt noch fehlen ein. Außer vielleicht noh Hochzeit und Kind. Aber egal.
Gut gefallen hat mir die Sprache. Sie war angemessen. Leider wurden teilweise Begriffe in den Raum geworfen, mit denen "normale" Leser nicht unbedingt etwas anfangen können und die dann auch nicht, oder nur unzureichend erklärt werden. Das hat mich besonders gestört, da ich um meine Wissenslücken aufzufüllen immer abbrechen musste, um dann die Informationen nachzuschlagen. Mir hat das die Lesefreude deutlich getrübt.
Ich hätte eine etwas bildreichere Sprache noch passender für die angestrebten Wirkung und Wahrnehmung des Buches gefunden.
Wirklich gut war meiner Meinung nach die Recherche für dieses Buch. Allerdings ist das in meinr Auffassung auch selbstverständlich für einen guten Historienroman.
Ganz nebenbei flossen hier interessante geschichtliche Fakten mit ein. Das hat mir wirklich gut gefallen.
Nichts desto trotz fand ich das Buch eher mau. Das Geld hätte ich auch anderweitig investieren können und nochmal lesen wrde ih diesen Roman in näherer Zukunft wohl auch nicht.
Allein schon der Titel hat in mir Assoziationen wachgerufen, die mir gesagt haben, das wird ein geniales Buch und auch die Kurzbeschreibung klang in meinen Ohren sehr vielversprechend. Außerdem war mir auch die Autorin ein durchaus positivbehafteter Begriff.
Vielleicht aus genau diesen Gründen und auf der Tatsache basierend, dass ich sehr hohe Erwartungen an dieses Buch hatte, bin ich schwer entäuscht worden.
Die Charaktere waren -meiner Meinung nach- wandelnde Stereotype. Die Handlung leider auch. Sie war vorhersehbar und erfüllte so ziemlich jedes Cliché. Mir fallen nur wenige Dinge aus dieser Kiste jetzt noch fehlen ein. Außer vielleicht noh Hochzeit und Kind. Aber egal.
Gut gefallen hat mir die Sprache. Sie war angemessen. Leider wurden teilweise Begriffe in den Raum geworfen, mit denen "normale" Leser nicht unbedingt etwas anfangen können und die dann auch nicht, oder nur unzureichend erklärt werden. Das hat mich besonders gestört, da ich um meine Wissenslücken aufzufüllen immer abbrechen musste, um dann die Informationen nachzuschlagen. Mir hat das die Lesefreude deutlich getrübt.
Ich hätte eine etwas bildreichere Sprache noch passender für die angestrebten Wirkung und Wahrnehmung des Buches gefunden.
Wirklich gut war meiner Meinung nach die Recherche für dieses Buch. Allerdings ist das in meinr Auffassung auch selbstverständlich für einen guten Historienroman.
Ganz nebenbei flossen hier interessante geschichtliche Fakten mit ein. Das hat mir wirklich gut gefallen.
Nichts desto trotz fand ich das Buch eher mau. Das Geld hätte ich auch anderweitig investieren können und nochmal lesen wrde ih diesen Roman in näherer Zukunft wohl auch nicht.
novelbloglover's review
4.0
Book Review
Title: The Courtesan and the Samurai
Author: Lesley Downer
Genre: Romance/Cultural/Historical
Rating: ****
Review: “The Courtesan and the Samurai” is the second book in a series of historical fiction by Lesley Downer set in 1860s Japan. This novel is set in 1868-9, a particularly turbulent year, covering the civil war between the shogunate forces, or “northerners,” and the imperial Japanese forces, or “southerners” as the two sides are simply called in the novel. This period is usually known as the Meiji Restoration.
Written from the point of the losing side in the civil war, the protagonist here is Hana, a 17-year-old daughter of a samurai married to one of the fiercest commanders of the ex-shogun’s forces of the Northern Alliance. The last shogun, Yoshinobu had resigned at the end of 1867, under duress from the Mikado’s councillors and the Southern clans.
Hana’s marriage is based on Confucian patriarchal ideals. She is expected to obey her husband as she would a father, or even a sovereign. Her husband is not expected to love her, or to particularly treat her kindly. But, like a good samurai, she is trained to fight. While her husband goes to rally forces for the Northern Alliance, she is given the task of being the sole defender of her household in Edo. And when the southerners come to the gates of her residence, she promptly kills one of them with a halberd and escapes at the behest of her servants across the river towards Nihonbashi, or Japan Bridge. There she is sold by a procuress to become a courtesan in Edo’s licensed quarters, the “five streets” of the Yoshiwara.
Hana has read about these quarters in the romantic fiction, ‘The Plum Calendar’ but she has never yet visited. Downer’s descriptions of life in the walled enclave of the Yoshiwara (established by the shogunate as a way of controlling prostitution), are a tour de force of literary dramatisation. Downer has previously written about the Yoshiwara in her book ‘Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World’ (2000), a history of the customs of Japanese courtesans and geisha. In her talk for this book’s launch the author provided a rare glimpse of her visit to the courtesans in Kyoto in the 1990s:
“There are five women who still uphold the traditions of courtesan, they are not the same as geisha, but they occupy the same world of the flower and the willow,” she said. Courtesans are high-class prostitutes, whereas geisha are women who sell their arts and social skills. Hana is equipped with the ability to write poetry, and so quickly promoted to being a star courtesan, given the honorific title “Hanaogi.”
In her talk, Downer described the awesome appearance of a courtesan (a ‘re-enactor’ in this day and age) dressed in many layers of kimono, escorted by child attendants, with a head of lacquered hair pinned together with tortoiseshell combs. She described the “electric” atmosphere among the men on this occasion, who were all lining up for an audience. The scene is recreated in the book when Hana appears in a cage along with her companions. During this viewing she is meant to pick out a man to be her lover. Outdoor scenes of this can also be seen in Utagawa Hiroshige’s prints.
The year that Downer chose to portray the life of a courtesan is crucial. At this time, courtesans were still sought after by the elite, but very shortly after, geisha women, partners of the new ruling Imperial elite installed in the newly named Tokyo, were elevated to higher social status. A few years later, the old Yoshiwara was burned down and then moved. Interestingly there are no photographs of the old Yoshiwara. It is as though Downer has chosen a period just beyond our reach to create a lavish world of high romance.
The other half of this story of star-crossed lovers is seen through the eyes of Yozo Tajima, a samurai sailor, fighting on the side of the Northern Alliance, serving the historical figure of Admiral Enomoto, of the ex-shogun’s navy. Both have recently returned from an expedition to the West licensed by the shogun. Part of their mission there is to build and bring back a warship, the Kaiyo Maru (which was later sunk). But on their return, they are appalled to find shogun has in fact resigned but Enomoto refuses to hand over the navy to the southern Imperial forces. Instead he is motivated by a mix of loyalty to the previous regime and idealism gained from his exposure to the more democratic ways of the West, to lead the Northern Alliance to Ezo, present-day Hokkaido. From there, the Northern Alliance “will establish the Democratic Republic of Ezo in the name of the shogun with Hakodate as our capital and from there move South and take the rest of Japan,” as Downer has him proclaim.
The army of the Northern Alliance, is here led by Commander Yamaguchi, a fictional figure based on the formidable leader of the shinsengumi (the ‘new select corps’), Toshizō Hijikata. His story is cleverly woven into Downer’s tale of star-crossed lovers. This army included crack troops some of whom had been trained by the French to protect the shogun before he resigned. Thus, historically, nine French officers sailed with the Japanese including Jean Marlin, who features in the novel as Yozo’s friend and supporter.
Downer imaginatively recreates the internal tensions of such a dynamic mix of personalities. Yamaguchi turns out to be bitterly opposed to the foreign-leaning Enomoto and Yozo, who is so adept at languages that not only has he read Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species, but he also sings an English sea shanty to entertain the troops. When Kitaro, a friend of Yozo is murdered mysteriously by one of Yamaguchi’s men, Yozo is motivated to take revenge for his friend’s death.
The defeat of the Northern Alliance at Hakodate gives Yozo the opportunity to take his chance at revenge but Enomoto, Yozo and his French protector Marlin, are eventually captured and brought back to Edo. They escape to the Yoshiwara, where Hana is preparing for her ‘debut’ or ‘mizuage’. Once a courtesan attracted a wealthy patron who would arrange for her mizuage, she could escape her debts and leave the Yoshiwara. So when the wealthy merchant Saburosuké Kashima catches sight of Hana, her fate is sealed, or is it? The pièce de resistance here is the mizuageitself, a grotesque affair where the odious merchant Saburosuké meets his match at last in a manner appropriate to this exaggerated world – gaudy, lascivious and grotesque.
There is a symbolic ending for the other characters too. Yozo and Enomoto survive, their skills needed in the new Japan. Meanwhile the old-style samurai Yamaguchi is killed, and in fact Hijikata died at Hakodate. Without such inspiring and entertaining books to draw our attention to it, Japan’s less well-known history of the 1860s might be in danger of going the way of the Kaiyo Maru herself.
Title: The Courtesan and the Samurai
Author: Lesley Downer
Genre: Romance/Cultural/Historical
Rating: ****
Review: “The Courtesan and the Samurai” is the second book in a series of historical fiction by Lesley Downer set in 1860s Japan. This novel is set in 1868-9, a particularly turbulent year, covering the civil war between the shogunate forces, or “northerners,” and the imperial Japanese forces, or “southerners” as the two sides are simply called in the novel. This period is usually known as the Meiji Restoration.
Written from the point of the losing side in the civil war, the protagonist here is Hana, a 17-year-old daughter of a samurai married to one of the fiercest commanders of the ex-shogun’s forces of the Northern Alliance. The last shogun, Yoshinobu had resigned at the end of 1867, under duress from the Mikado’s councillors and the Southern clans.
Hana’s marriage is based on Confucian patriarchal ideals. She is expected to obey her husband as she would a father, or even a sovereign. Her husband is not expected to love her, or to particularly treat her kindly. But, like a good samurai, she is trained to fight. While her husband goes to rally forces for the Northern Alliance, she is given the task of being the sole defender of her household in Edo. And when the southerners come to the gates of her residence, she promptly kills one of them with a halberd and escapes at the behest of her servants across the river towards Nihonbashi, or Japan Bridge. There she is sold by a procuress to become a courtesan in Edo’s licensed quarters, the “five streets” of the Yoshiwara.
Hana has read about these quarters in the romantic fiction, ‘The Plum Calendar’ but she has never yet visited. Downer’s descriptions of life in the walled enclave of the Yoshiwara (established by the shogunate as a way of controlling prostitution), are a tour de force of literary dramatisation. Downer has previously written about the Yoshiwara in her book ‘Geisha: The Secret History of a Vanishing World’ (2000), a history of the customs of Japanese courtesans and geisha. In her talk for this book’s launch the author provided a rare glimpse of her visit to the courtesans in Kyoto in the 1990s:
“There are five women who still uphold the traditions of courtesan, they are not the same as geisha, but they occupy the same world of the flower and the willow,” she said. Courtesans are high-class prostitutes, whereas geisha are women who sell their arts and social skills. Hana is equipped with the ability to write poetry, and so quickly promoted to being a star courtesan, given the honorific title “Hanaogi.”
In her talk, Downer described the awesome appearance of a courtesan (a ‘re-enactor’ in this day and age) dressed in many layers of kimono, escorted by child attendants, with a head of lacquered hair pinned together with tortoiseshell combs. She described the “electric” atmosphere among the men on this occasion, who were all lining up for an audience. The scene is recreated in the book when Hana appears in a cage along with her companions. During this viewing she is meant to pick out a man to be her lover. Outdoor scenes of this can also be seen in Utagawa Hiroshige’s prints.
The year that Downer chose to portray the life of a courtesan is crucial. At this time, courtesans were still sought after by the elite, but very shortly after, geisha women, partners of the new ruling Imperial elite installed in the newly named Tokyo, were elevated to higher social status. A few years later, the old Yoshiwara was burned down and then moved. Interestingly there are no photographs of the old Yoshiwara. It is as though Downer has chosen a period just beyond our reach to create a lavish world of high romance.
The other half of this story of star-crossed lovers is seen through the eyes of Yozo Tajima, a samurai sailor, fighting on the side of the Northern Alliance, serving the historical figure of Admiral Enomoto, of the ex-shogun’s navy. Both have recently returned from an expedition to the West licensed by the shogun. Part of their mission there is to build and bring back a warship, the Kaiyo Maru (which was later sunk). But on their return, they are appalled to find shogun has in fact resigned but Enomoto refuses to hand over the navy to the southern Imperial forces. Instead he is motivated by a mix of loyalty to the previous regime and idealism gained from his exposure to the more democratic ways of the West, to lead the Northern Alliance to Ezo, present-day Hokkaido. From there, the Northern Alliance “will establish the Democratic Republic of Ezo in the name of the shogun with Hakodate as our capital and from there move South and take the rest of Japan,” as Downer has him proclaim.
The army of the Northern Alliance, is here led by Commander Yamaguchi, a fictional figure based on the formidable leader of the shinsengumi (the ‘new select corps’), Toshizō Hijikata. His story is cleverly woven into Downer’s tale of star-crossed lovers. This army included crack troops some of whom had been trained by the French to protect the shogun before he resigned. Thus, historically, nine French officers sailed with the Japanese including Jean Marlin, who features in the novel as Yozo’s friend and supporter.
Downer imaginatively recreates the internal tensions of such a dynamic mix of personalities. Yamaguchi turns out to be bitterly opposed to the foreign-leaning Enomoto and Yozo, who is so adept at languages that not only has he read Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species, but he also sings an English sea shanty to entertain the troops. When Kitaro, a friend of Yozo is murdered mysteriously by one of Yamaguchi’s men, Yozo is motivated to take revenge for his friend’s death.
The defeat of the Northern Alliance at Hakodate gives Yozo the opportunity to take his chance at revenge but Enomoto, Yozo and his French protector Marlin, are eventually captured and brought back to Edo. They escape to the Yoshiwara, where Hana is preparing for her ‘debut’ or ‘mizuage’. Once a courtesan attracted a wealthy patron who would arrange for her mizuage, she could escape her debts and leave the Yoshiwara. So when the wealthy merchant Saburosuké Kashima catches sight of Hana, her fate is sealed, or is it? The pièce de resistance here is the mizuageitself, a grotesque affair where the odious merchant Saburosuké meets his match at last in a manner appropriate to this exaggerated world – gaudy, lascivious and grotesque.
There is a symbolic ending for the other characters too. Yozo and Enomoto survive, their skills needed in the new Japan. Meanwhile the old-style samurai Yamaguchi is killed, and in fact Hijikata died at Hakodate. Without such inspiring and entertaining books to draw our attention to it, Japan’s less well-known history of the 1860s might be in danger of going the way of the Kaiyo Maru herself.
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