Lesley Downer

Sachi finds her life changed forever when she becomes the Shogun princes favourite concubine. Epic history and romance combine in a sweeping novel featuring the beautiful mistress of the last Shogun EmperorSachi ve como su vida cambia para siempre cuando se convierte en la concubina favorita del principe del Shogunado. La historia epica y el romance se combinan en una trepidante novela protagonizada por la hermosa compañera del ultimo emperador Shogun.

The year is 1853, and a young Japanese girl's world is about to be turned upside down. When black ships carrying barbarians arrive on the shores of Japan, the Satsuma clan's way of life is threatened. But it's not just the samurai who must come together to fight: the beautiful, headstrong Okatsu is also given a new destiny by her feudal lord - to save the realm. Armed only with a new name, Princess Atsu, as she is now known, journeys to the women's palace of Edo Castle, a place so secret it cannot be marked on any map. Behind the palace's immaculate facade, amid rumours of murder and whispers of ghosts, Atsu must uncover the secret of the man whose fate, it seems, is irrevocably linked to hers - the shogun himself - if she is to rescue her people...

Only one woman can save her world from barbarian invasion but to do so will mean sacrificing everything she holds dear - love, loyalty and maybe life itself ...Japan, and the year is 1853. Growing up among the samurai of the Satsuma Clan, in Japan's deep south, the fiery, beautiful and headstrong Okatsu has - like all the clan's women - been encouraged to be bold, taught to wield the halberd, and to ride a horse. But when she is just seventeen, four black ships appear. Bristling with cannon and manned by strangers who to the Japanese eyes are barbarians, their appearance threatens Japan's very existence. And turns Okatsu's world upside down. Chosen by her feudal lord, she has been given a very special role to play. Given a new name - Princess Atsu - and a new destiny, she is the only one who can save the realm. Her journey takes her to Edo Castle, a place so secret that it cannot be marked on any map. There, sequestered in the Women's Palace - home to three thousand women, and where only one man may enter: the shogun - she seems doomed to live out her days. But beneath the palace's immaculate facade, there are whispers of murders and ghosts. It is here that Atsu must complete her mission and discover one last secret - the secret of the man whose fate is irrevocably linked to hers: the shogun himself...

1868. In Japan's exotic pleasure quarters, sex is for sale and the only forbidden fruit is love ...Hana is just seventeen when her husband goes to war, leaving her alone and vulnerable. When enemy soldiers attack her house she flees across the shattered city of Tokyo and takes refuge in the Yoshiwara, its famous pleasure-quarters. There she is forced to become a courtesan. Yozo, brave, loyal and a brilliant swordsman, is pledged to the embattled shogun. He sails to the frozen north to join his rebel comrades for a desperate last stand. Defeated, he makes his way south to the only place where a man is beyond the reach of the law - the Yoshiwara. There in the Nightless City where three thousand courtesans mingle with geishas and jesters, the battered fugitive meets the beautiful courtesan. But each has a secret so terrible that once revealed it will threaten their very lives...

A critically acclaimed author tells the enthralling true story of the real Madame Butterfly, a woman who became the most celebrated geisha in Japan and the first to tour the West. At twenty-nine, she captivated the worlds stage. From San Francisco to New York, Paris, and Berlin, audiences thrilled to her mesmeric acting and exquisite dancing. She performed for the American President and for the Prince of Wales in London. Picasso painted her. Gide, Debussy, Degas, and Rodin were among her devoted fans. She was Sadayakko, Japans most notorious geishaand its first international superstar. In Italy, Puccini was working on Madame Butterfly. He had the plot for his opera, but he had yet to see a real live flesh-and-blood Japanese womanuntil Sadayakko arrived with her troupe of traveling actors. Madame Sadayakko is the true story of this extraordinary womanmuse to writers, artists, and fashion designers. Her adventures lift the veil on the secretive world of the geisha and reveal a missing piece of history from the turn of the last century, when Japanese women wore bustles and learned the waltz and women in the West wore Sadayakko kimonos.

Esta es la historia de una japonesa que encarnó en Occidente el espíritu de su tiempo. En su adolescencia fue la amante del primer ministro Ito, quien pagó una fortuna por desvirgarla, aunque ella estaba enamorada de un joven. A finales del siglo XIX, Madame Sadayako se caso con un actor, introductor en Japon del teatro occidental. Se dieron cuenta de que en su pais no tenian futuro y probaron suerte en el extranjero. Sadayako se convirito asi en el simbolo de la fascinacion de Occidente por la cultura nipona. Al regresar al Japon, se encontraron marginados socialmente. Su marido fallecio y ella volvio con su primer amor, aquel joven que la habia abandonado por una vida burguesa. Madame Sadayako viviria para ser testigo de los acontecimientos que transformarian al Imperio del Sol Naciente.

A terrific overview of Japans long and rich history... covers an astonishing amount of ground PETER FRANKOPANJapan is a country of islands, strung like a necklace around the Asian mainland...Ever since US Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to open its borders in 1853, the culture of this remarkable and distant archipelago has enriched western life. At the same time the country has embraced foreign institutions from baseball to barber shops. Yet for centuries under the rule of the shoguns, the islands were largely sealed off from the outside world. In charting a course between openness and insularity, Japan has found a way to become ultra-modern while breathing new life into its own unique traditions.In The Shortest History of Japan, Lesley Downer brings an expert storytellers eye to the sweep of Japanese history. Here are the emperors and warlords, the samurai and women warriors, the merchants and geisha who shaped this extraordinary modern society. From the hunter-gatherers who fashioned the worlds first pots to the novel-writing ladies of the eleventh-century Heian court, from the devastation of Hiroshima to todays economic and cultural powerhouse, this is an indispensable, riveting history of the land of the rising sun.

From critically acclaimed author and Japanese scholar Lesley Downer, an enchanting portrait of the mysterious world of the geisha.Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, by geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of extraordinary fictional creations, from Puccinis Madama Butterfly to Arthur Goldens Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geishas existence, though, whether today or in history, has rarely been addressed. Contrary to popular opinion, geisha are not prostitutes but, literally, "arts people." Their accomplishments include singing, dancing, playing a musical instruments; but above all, they are masters of the art of conversation, soothing the worries and stroking the egos of the wealthy businessmen who can afford their attentions. It is this which imbues the geisha with such powerand which makes absolute secrecy such a crucial aspect of their work. As denizens of a world defined by silence and mystery, geisha are notoriously difficult to meet and even to find. Lesley Downer, an award- winning writer, Japanese scholar, and consummate storyteller, gained more access into this world than almost any other Westerner ever has and spent several months living among them. In Women of the Pleasure Quarters, she weaves together intimate portraits of modern geisha with the romantic legends and colorful historical tales of geisha of the past. From Sadda Yakko, who dined with American presidents and had her portrait painted by Picasso, to Koito, a modern-day geisha who maintains her own website, geisha throughout history step out of the pages of Women of the Pleasure Quarters to become living, breathing creatures. Looking into such traditions as mizuage, the ritual deflowering which was once a rite of passage for all geisha, and providing colorful depictions of the geishas dress, training, and homes, Downer, with grace, elegance, and respect, transforms their reality in a captivating narrative that both informs and entertains. At once a symbol of a bygone age and an institution more quintessentially Japanese than any other, geisha are a society at a crossroads, struggling to reinvent their place in the new millennium while honoring the traditions of the past. Both instructive and evocative, Women of the Pleasure Quartersis an enthralling portrait of a world unlike any other.

Two cultures. One man and one woman. One moment in time. Cultures collide when Okichi, a beautiful geisha, is sent to work for the American envoy in Japan. Age and pride meet youth and grace. How will she survive in a home where no one speaks her language, where she understands nothing and she must submit to a strange barbarians will?

In the brave new Japan of the 1870s, Taka and Nobu meet as children and fall in love; but their relationship will test the limits of society.Unified after a bitter civil war, Japan is rapidly turning into a modern country with rickshaws, railways and schools for girls. Commoners can marry their children into any class, and the old hatred between north and south is over - or so it seems. Taka is from the powerful southern Satsuma clan which now dominates the country, and her father, General Kitaoka, is a leader of the new government. Nobu, however, is from the northern Aizu clan, massacred by the Satsuma in the civil war. Defeated and reduced to poverty, his family has sworn revenge on the Satsuma. Taka and Nobus love is unacceptable to both their families and must be kept secret, but what they cannot foresee is how quickly the tables will turn. Many southern samurai become disillusioned with the new regime, which has deprived them of their swords, status and honour. Takas father abruptly leaves Tokyo and returns to the southern island of Kyushu, where trouble is brewing. When he and his clansmen rise in rebellion, the government sends its newly-created army to put them down. Nobu and his brothers have joined this army, and his brothers now see their chance of revenge on the Satsuma. But Nobu will have to fight and maybe kill Takas father and brother, while Taka now has to make a terrible choice - between her family and the man she loves ...

A persuasive storyteller and the setting is mesmerising Antonia Senior, The Times_________________The year is 1853, and a young Japanese girls world is about to be turned upside down.When black ships carrying barbarians arrive on the shores of Japan, the Satsuma clans way of life is threatened. But its not just the samurai who must come together to fight: the beautiful, headstrong Okatsu is also given a new destiny by her feudal lord to save the realm.Armed only with a new name, Princess Atsu, as she is now known, journeys to the womens palace of Edo Castle, a place so secret it cannot be marked on any map. Behind the palaces immaculate façade, amid rumours of murder and whispers of ghosts, Atsu must uncover the mystery that surrounds the man whose fate, it seems, is irrevocably linked to hers the shogun himself if she is to rescue her people . . .

Dans le Japon du XIXe siècle, la vie d’Okatsu bascule le jour où elle est choisie pour intégrer la cour impériale. Élevée parmi les samouraïs, la jeune femme renonce à tout – sa famille, son amour de

Japan, 1865, the womens palace in the great city of Edo. Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man - the young shogun. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen to be his concubine.But Japan is changing, and as civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her; but this is a world in which private passions have no place and there is not even a word for love. Before she dare dream of a life with him, Sachi must uncover the secret of her own origins - a secret that encompasses a wrong so terrible that it threatens to destroy her ....

1868. In Japans exotic pleasure quarters, sex is for sale and the only forbidden fruit is love ...Hana is just seventeen when her husband goes to war, leaving her alone and vulnerable. When enemy soldiers attack her house she flees across the shattered city of Tokyo and takes refuge in the Yoshiwara, its famous pleasure-quarters.There she is forced to become a courtesan.Yozo, brave, loyal and a brilliant swordsman, is pledged to the embattled shogun. He sails to the frozen north to join his rebel comrades for a desperate last stand. Defeated, he makes his way south to the only place where a man is beyond the reach of the law - the Yoshiwara.There in the Nightless City where three thousand courtesans mingle with geishas and jesters, the battered fugitive meets the beautiful courtesan. But each has a secret so terrible that once revealed it will threaten their very lives ...