Ryu Keiichiro’s Yoshiwara Gomenjo (in translation)

When a publisher asked me if I would be willing to translate a book of historical fiction, I was somewhat baffled. Why, I wondered, did they ask me, since I had never before taken on such a project? But I had read a lot about Japanese history, so I knew who the main characters were and, I have to confess, I used to enjoy chambara. I agreed to do it.

Ryu Keiichiro’s Yoshiwara Gomenjo is set primarily in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters in Edo. An innocent young swordsman from the mountains of provincial Higo arrives in Edo bearing a secret that even he is unaware of. Named Matsunaga Seiichiro, he was raised by the legendary Miyamoto Musashi and trained to become a lethal, if innocent, warrior.

 What he does not know is that he is the son of a former emperor and was by sheer chance saved from being killed by minions of the Tokugawa clan. After growing up in the care of and under the training of Musashi, he is told to travel to Edo, where he will receive instructions from certain people in Yoshiwara.

The novel combines historical events, individual combat, insight into the Tokugawa clan, the erotic pleasure quarters, the infamous Yagyu clan ninja, and a hidden underworld of puppeteers who employ their own powers against the warrior clans that unified Japan.

Ryu’s novel is a joy to read. It was at times very hard to translate. But the combination of actual historical people and fictional characters makes one wonder whether what parts of standard Japanese history texts are really true.

(264 words)