Bøger udgivet af Toyo Press

The Two Courts Period (1333-92) was a turning point in Japan's medieval era-a time when an unbridgeable rift appeared in the fragile fabric of Japanese feudal society. On each side stood a separate imperial court, each with its own army and its own agenda. As the schism deepened and the positions hardened, one by one clans and domains were rent asunder until each and every man faced the terrible choice between loyalty and friendship.Two such men were Nennami Okuyama Jion and Ch¿j¿ Hy¿go no Kami Nagahide, who faced each other from across the dazzling divide. Jion, an impoverished warrior monk who had lost his father through the treachery of a Bakufu official, joined the side of the loyalists, the forces fighting on behalf of the Southern Court. Nagahide, whose ancestors had stood at the cradle of feudal society and had risen to high rank within the Bakufu, was bound by duty to the Northern Court. Their stories, set against the greater historical backdrop of ruthless political intrigue and vast military campaigns, describe the tragedy of civil war experienced at the personal level; they tell of loyalty, of betrayal, and of seemingly insurmountable setbacks. Yet the friendship between these two so disparate men, founded on their mutual love of swordsmanship and forged in the midst of a chaotic world, stands as moving testimony to courage that can have no equal in times of peace.

Eiko Ozaki's unforgettable portraits of Japan's greatest medieval warriors, presented here for the first time in a newly edited text, along with the many stunning woodprints they and their heroic stories inspired.- Minamoto Monjumaru Yorimitsu and his four loyal retainers, who slew the Giant of Oeyama and confronted the Monster Spider.- Minamoto Sanmi Yorimasa, the archer who vanquished the Monster of the Black Cloud, went on to win the beautiful Lady Ayame, only to lay down his life in the garden of the Byôdô-in.- Minamoto Hachirô Tametomo, the wild and reckless youth who joined Emperor Sutoku's cause, yet was ultimately thwarted and had to flee to the strangely inhabited world of Oshima Island.- Minamoto Uchiwakamaru Yoshitsune, the young warrior raised by his clan's greatest enemy, the hated Taira Kiyomori, and who fulfilled his mother's dying wish to revenge his murdered father. - Musashibô Benkei, the faithful warrior-monk who joined Yoshitsune's cause after their epic encounter on Gojô bridge, and helped him vanquish the Taira hegemony once and for all at Dan no Ura.