A Brief History of Japan ─ Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun

This fascinating history of Japan tells the story of the people of Japan, from ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two centuries in self-imposed seclusion.

Stretching for nearly 2000 miles and encompassing almost 7000 islands, Japan has the fourth largest GDP and the tenth largest population in the world. Japan is a country of paradoxes, a modern nation steeped in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes and an active earthquake zone. Despite a reputation for sprawling cities and cutting-edge technology, seventy-three percent of its land comprises uninhabited mountains and forests.

First revealed to the West in the Travels of Marco Polo, Japan was the legendary faraway land defended by the fearsome Kamikaze storm, and ruled by a divine sovereign. It was the terminus of the Silk Road and the edge of the known world, a fictional construct for European arts and crafts, and an enduring symbol of the mysterious east. In recent times, it became the powerhouse of global industry, a nexus of pop culture and a harbinger of post-industrial decline.

Among the chapters in this Japanese history book are:

• The Way of the Gods: Prehistoric and Mythical Japan
• A Game of Thrones: Minamoto vs. Taira
• Time Warp: 200 Years of Isolation
• The Stench of Butter: Restoration and Modernization
• The New Breed: The Japanese Miracle

Jonathan Clements is the author of Christ's Samurai: The True Story of the Shimabara Rebellion, A Brief History of the Samurai, Modern Japan: All That Matters, Anime: A History, and biographies of Admiral Togo and Prince Saionji Kinmochi. In 2016 he became the presenter of Route Awakenings (National Geographic) a TV series on historical icons of Chinese culture.