New Book 24 Hours in Shōgun’s Japan Explores Japanese History
The new book by researcher Mark Hudson uses archaeological and historical information to portray the daily lives of individuals in 17th century Japan, around the time of first contact with European merchants and missionaries
Japan in May 1614. The aging shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu saw two threats on the horizon—possible perils to his legacy. One was the European missionaries and merchants who seemed to be gaining ever greater influence. The second was the Toyotomi family based in their huge castle at Osaka.
In his new book 24 Hours in Shōgun’s Japan, Dr. Mark Hudson of the Language and the Anthropocene research group explores this fascinating period of Japanese history through 24 episodes, each corresponding to one hour of the day. A different character appears in each chapter: merchants and monks, pirates and poets, farmers and a falcon-handler. Part of the best-selling 24 Hours series, Hudson’s book is published March 12 by Michael O’Mara Books. Translation rights have already been sold for Germany as well as France, Serbia, Spain and Ukraine.
“While the main focus of my research has been on much earlier periods of Japanese history,” explains Hudson, “I recently became fascinated in the period of first contact between Europe and Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. James Clavell’s novel and the recent television series Shōgun have been enormously popular. But if anything, the real history is even more exciting.’
“Writing this book was a challenge, a combination of fiction together with authentic details of everyday life in Japan in 1614. I used my experience in archaeology to try to give voice to a wide range of people living in the Japanese Islands at the time, not just samurai but women, merchants, a fisherman, an Ainu hunter and a kabuki dancer among others. It was especially difficult to strike the right balance between Japanese and European characters because the Iberian and English sources are so evocative of everyday life. Above all, I tried to make the book entertaining and I hope it will stimulate a new interest in Japanese history in Germany and beyond.”
