Unsung heroes of old Japan / Michifumi Isoda ; translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter.

Unsung heroes of old Japan / Michifumi Isoda ; translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter.

Mushi no Nihonjin. English

First edition.

9784916055767 (hardcover)
4916055764 (hardcover)

Tokyo-to Chiyoda-ku : Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, 2017.

English

Translated from the original Japanese into English.

207 pages ; 22 cm.

DS871.75 .I8413 2017

"True stories of three little-known Japanese of the Edo period who lived lives of sublime selflessness and purity, blurring the boundary between self and others. Merchant Kokudaya Jūzaburō comes up with a brilliant scheme to rescue his dying town from poverty. He and others go deep into debt, risking all to raise money for the cash-strapped daimyo and receive annual interest in return. Prodigious scholar and former Zen monk Nakane Tōri refuses a government post and elects to live in abject poverty, weaving sandals. Though perhaps the age's greatest poet, he throws his works into the fire and ends his days teaching in a country village. Ōtagaki Rengetsu, a noted beauty in Kyoto, loses two husbands and five children. She becomes a Buddhist nun and devotes her life to poetry and pottery. With her savings she feeds the hungry and builds a bridge across Kamo River"--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references (page 206).

Japan library (Shuppan Bunka Sangyō Shinkō Zaidan)

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