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In writing this novel, I broke several rules that every aspiring writer hears from books, courses, and mentors. One of the big ones? Create a protagonist readers can easily relate to. Save the other types, they said, for when you’ve got more experience or a solid track record. I almost centered the novel on a…
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After the siege of Odawara (1590), Ujimasa and his younger brother Ujiteru were forced to commit seppuku. This was Ujimasa’s death poem, translated by A. L. Sadler: Autumn wind of eve,Blow away the clouds that massO’er the moon’s pure lightAnd the mists that cloud our mind,Do thou sweep away as well. Now we disappear,Well, what…
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How did samurai looked like after a life of war and fighting during the turbulent Sengoku Jidai Period? When Tokugawa Ieyasu, refused to treat a condition that could end his own life, Honda Shigetsugu, at that time sixty years old, protested his lord’s carelessness with a speech that offered a glimpse on this matter:
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In 1584, two years after Oda Nobunaga’s death, a war broke out between his ally, Ieyasu Tokugawa, and his younger brother, Hashiba Hideyoshi. To end the conflict, Hideyoshi decided to marry his half-sister Asahi-hime to his rival. Nothing new so far: peace and alliances have been sealed with marriages in different times and parts of…









