{"id":40993,"date":"2023-04-17T06:30:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T18:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=40993"},"modified":"2023-04-16T20:41:07","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T08:41:07","slug":"gorgeous-words-rereading-tokaido-by-lucia-st-clair-robson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2023\/04\/17\/gorgeous-words-rereading-tokaido-by-lucia-st-clair-robson\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorgeous Words: Rereading \u201cTokaido\u201d by Lucia St Clair Robson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tokaido<\/em><\/strong> is a favourite historical novel and another best book-friend \u2013 or should that be book bestfriend? Never mind! I suspect you know what I mean. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

\"\"

Clearly, “Tokaido” was also published as “The Tokaido Road.” \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

First published in 1991 (although I read it first about ten years later) Tokaido<\/em> tells the famous story of the forty-seven ronin<\/strong> <\/a>(samurai without a lord to follow) through the lives and adventures of fictional characters whose lives intersect the famous vengeance quest.<\/p>\n

The main character is nicknamed Cat, a courtesan through adverse fate, although born into the samurai (warrior)\/daimyo (noble) class. Forced to flee Tokyo (Edo) to escape her dead father\u2019s greatest enemy, Cat embarks on the three-hundred-mile journey to Kyoto, traveling on the famous Tokaido Road<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

This is my edition, Gainsborough Press, 1996<\/p><\/div>\n

Those familiar with Hiroshige\u2019<\/a>s<\/strong> famous series of woodblock prints titled Fifty Three Stations on the Tokaido Road<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, will know that it was the main route between the Shogun\u2019s capital of Edo, and the imperial city of Kyoto, and a major highway of the Shogunate era.<\/p>\n

From Tokyo\u2019s Yoshiwara pleasure district to Kabuki theatre, kago bearers to daimyo lords, pilgrims and itinerant haijin (poets) Tokaido<\/em> brings to vivid life the society and times of the Genroku period (1688 \u2013 1703.) The events of the book and the forty-seven ronin\u2019s famous revenge is set in 1702-1703.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tokaido<\/em> is also full of fabulous characters and evocative writing. The evolving romance between Cat and Hanshiro, the ronin bounty-hunter dispatched to capture her, is key to unfolding events and the story charts their gardual shift from enmity, through growing admiration, to love.<\/p>\n

As a writer, I\u2019m always interested in how other authors deal with romance in all its guises. The following passage, when Cat reflects on Hanshiro\u2019s continuing pursuit and then Hanshiro himself, is the first noticeable shift in her thinking, away from outright fear and enmity. (He is one of many pursuers, since many powerful people want her dead or disappeared.)<\/p>\n

\"\"

The audio version<\/p><\/div>\n

I should also note that the first time I read Tokaido<\/em>, this was the first time (the reflection occurs just over halfway through the book) I twigged to what might be happening beneath the story\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

~*~<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the wind shifted, the music and laughter from Okitsu faded. They were replaced by the steady murmur of the surf and the low rustling of the pine boughs overhead. Tomorrow, Cat vowed, tomorrow they would be on the road before dawn. \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Hanshiro was proving difficult to lose, and not just because he was as persistent as boiled rice on the sole of her foot. His face and his presence were beginning to haunt Cat. Someone, somewhere, was playing a bamboo flute. \u2026 As Cat lay on the narrow may with her head cradled on her arm and listened to the melancholy song and to the constant rush and murmur of the waves, the memory of Hanshiro returned. His dark face, shaded with the stubble of his beard, was almost gaunt.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTosa dog!\u201d<\/em> Cat thought. She remembered him as he had been in the lanternlight of the abbot\u2019s poetry gathering. Shadows lay under the arches of his prominent cheekbones and in the deep hollows around eyes that glittered like ice on obsidian. His face was rugged, cold, ruthless as the mountains. And like the mountains he was remote, mysterious, and beautiful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

~ from Tokaido<\/em>, by Lucia St Clair Robson.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tokaido is a favourite historical novel and another best book-friend \u2013 or should that be book bestfriend? Never mind! I suspect you know what I mean. \ud83d\ude00 First published in 1991 (although I read it first about ten years later) Tokaido tells the famous story of the forty-seven ronin (samurai without a lord to follow) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,10,14,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funstuff","category-general","category-other-writers","category-recommended-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40993"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41001,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40993\/revisions\/41001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}