Taiko

The book

Yoshikawa again, on the generation before Musashi: the sixteenth-century wars that ended the age of the country at war, told mainly through a peasant's son who talked, schemed and charmed his way to ruling Japan.

Why Kawase Hasui

Hasui for the same reason as the Musashi edition — Taiko is a book of campaigns, castles and long approaches, and shin-hanga's weather-and-light register turns a march into an image.

What to look for

Castles at distance in weather. The book's turning points are mostly sieges, and the plates treat them as landscape rather than as action.

Plates

Nakamura VillageThe Hachisuka MarshThe Kitchen FiresInabayama Above the RiverLord of NagahamaThe Great DikePeace at TakamatsuThe Council at KiyosuDawn at ShizugatakeThe Peace with IeyasuThe Submission of the ShimazuFushimi Castle