Samurai Sketches -- From the Final Bloody Years of the Shogun is an accurate and realistic study-in-brief of the fifteen years of bloody revolution which culminated with the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868. In this collection of historical sketches written in short-story form, Romulus Hillsborough depicts scenes of human strife, courage, fidelity, self-sacrifice, heroism, good and evil, in prose which are always concise, often intensely vivid, at times poetic. He throws light upon a period in Japanese history which has either been sadly neglected or grossly misinterpreted by Western writers. Sketches is Hillsborough's sequel to RYOMA -- Life of a Renaissance Samurai, which chronicles this historical era through the life of one of its most important heroes, Sakamoto Ryoma. As a Japanese man, and as a life-long student of Japanese history, I am at once proud and happy to recommend both Samurai Sketches and Ryoma to people interested in Japanese culture and history, or, more broadly speaking, the human condition.

In Samurai Sketches From The Bloody Final Years Of The Shogun, Romulus Hillsborough offers historical sketches of the world of the samurai during the mid-nineteenth century which saw the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the rise of the Meiji Restoration -- an age of unprecedented political turmoil and bloody conflicts between clans and war lords. Here is a "window in time" through which we can observe those bygone days when the samurai class underwent social, cultural, and political upheavals with attendant pressures on their stoic codes of life and death. Samurai Sketches is a "must" for all Japanese history students and samurai buffs.

The only reason why this book succeeds is because of its excellent subject matter. Sakamoto Ryoma is truly one of the most legendary figures in Japanese History.

While the story is engrossing, the writing is below average. Hillsborough is prone to overly flowery hyperbole ... which sometimes conflicts jarringly with the factual nature of the account. ... [the book] goes into meticulous detail into Ryoma Sakamoto's life but ends incredibly abruptly at the very moment of his death, omitting all accounts of the Boshin Civil War and the subsequent reformations of the Meiji restoration for which Ryoma Sakamoto was arguably one of the most influential forces behind.

In short, we are treated to Ryoma's tremendous struggle to create a free and wealthy Japan, only to be cut short just at the climax. The last words of the book (before the incredibly brief 1-page "Epilogue") is a dying quote from Ryoma, "Shinta, my brains are coming out." Huh? What an utterly disappointing way to end an account! Completely left out are the far-reaching implications of Ryoma's actions after his death - how his brokered alliance of the anti-Shogunate forces were involved in the Boshin Civil War which ultimately crushed the last military capabilities of the Bakufu, how his old mentor Katsu Kaishu helped broker the peace at Edo, and how Ryoma's ideals of freedom and equality were realised in the years after the Meiji Restoration.

Hillsborough's book is an engrossing read... until the final page, after which it becomes an incredible let down. Nonetheless, the story of Sakamoto Ryoma is such an exciting account of an incredible man living in an incredible age, that the book is well worth a read, despite its disappointing treatment of its prime subject matter.

If you're tired of all the "over romanticized" tales of the samaurai this book is for you!

Focusing primarily on Sakamoto Ryoma, Romulus Hilsborough recounts the lives and events of several important characters in the creation of modern Japan - providing a truly eye-opening account of the deciet, betrayal, assaninations, in-fighting and highly political culture the samaurai was a pivotal part of.

If you can get past the author's style of writing (it's as if the book were written as a series of smaller stories where you are constantly reintroduced to the main characters and events as if for the first time) you are rewarded with a history lesson that goes against the common practice of portraying Japan's samurai class as superhuman, super enlightened beings and instead portays them as human beings with the same fears, dreams and ambitions as the rest of us.

Ambition and passion are at the heart of Romulus Hillsborough's hefty biography of Sakamoto Ryoma, founder of Japan's first modern corporation and leader of a band of rugged samurai attempting to overthrow the shogun in mid-19th century Japan. Like its central character, this work is exhaustive and compelling, and Hillsborough has done a remarkable job of supplementing the facts with scenes of drama and intrigue. Ryoma reads like a novel. The reader is drawn in by the action, violence, and political battles. Then Hillsborough seamlessly integrates the vast amount of historical information into the plot. Thereby educating as he entertains. Ryoma, so far, is the most detailed analysis of the events in the chaotic period leading up to the Meiji Restoration, in the English language so far. This time period, has been said to be so complicated, that many of the key people involved in restoring Japanese rule to the Emperor did not understand what was going on around them. Ryoma takes the necessary steps, drawn out in every detail, to explain everyone's motives. This is helped by Hillsborough's way of explaining the bizarre customs of the traditional Japanese to an English speaking audience. The fact that the book is 614 large hardcover pages long is not because it is filled with "fluff." Any lesser amount would not have been able to unravel this historical tale. All of these factors thrown together, help to put together the puzzle that is the Meiji Restoration. The book itself is divided into three sections. The first, also the shortest by far, tells the story of Ryoma's birth followed by his training at a fencing dojo in the Tosa Province. The beginning explains Ryoma's lineage and history. It also begins to point out the horrible corruption in Japanese society that make Ryoma want to flee his native domain, and fight to reestablish a healthy Japanese government. Ryoma, upset by the radical xenophobic philosophies of Tosa, decides to leave home. This may not seem like a big deal to western audiences, but in feudal Japan, a samurai fleeing his native Han, or province, makes him a ronin. A ronin is an outlaw, a free samurai, not belonging to any one particular Han. Because Ryoma was constantly saying that he was working for the betterment of Japan as a whole, and not a particular Han, it was important to him that he was not tied down to one. In the second part of the novel, Ryoma begins to demonstrate the skills that will make him go down in history as the most important man in modern Japan. Ryoma, is at a personal low in the beginning Part 2. He has nowhere to go, and no direction other than "cleaning up Japan." It is in this time of reflection that Ryoma comes across his philosophy, the thesis of the novel. On page 87, Ryoma states to one of his future comrades, "The purpose of life is to act, and through action achieve great results." Throughout Ryoma's life, he does not cease to act until he is assassinated in Kyoto on the night of his thirty-second birthday. A corollary to this thesis is that having a sense of timing is just as important as acting. In other words, action means nothing if it is not done at the correct time. Ryoma mentions this an uncountable number of times during the novel. His sense of timing, which may seem trivial to many westerners, was unusual and quite ahead of its time in feudal Japan. One of Ryoma's many other skills was his unrivaled ability to persuade others. He could make even the bitterest of enemies, Choshu and Satsuma, become allies. He could convince the most xenophobic radicals, to call back their attacks on the western warships. This ability to persuade first appears in this section of book. It is discovered and harnessed by the great navy commander himself, Katsu Kaishu. Katsu introduces Ryoma to many of the most important men in Japan at that time. These acquaintances will prove to be crucial in overthrowing the Bakufu, or the Shogun's regime. The third part of the novel, which is also the largest, comprises over half of the book itself. In this part he rallies support for the movement to overthrow the Bakufu. He also starts his shipping company, the Kaientai, which was unprecedented in Japanese history. It starts the idea of free enterprise, later evolving into the Japanese super company known as Mitsubishi. He starts Japanese friendly relationships with the west, and introduces international law to the country. Also he personally fights the Tokugawa Bakufu navy at Choshu. He leads a four-front battle against a fleet ten times the size of his, and wins. Ryoma is able to have many of the most powerful Han in Japan playing nice with one another. Eventually, he is able to persuade the Shogun to relinquish his power, finally toppling the corrupt Japanese government. This peaceful revolution was so critical to Japan because it would keep the western vultures from attacking at Japan's time of weakness. The majority of Japan wanted a bloody civil war, ending the Bakufu once and for all. Ryoma was one of the only men with the keen sense of timing to see that a civil war was not what they needed. Before Sakamoto Ryoma is assassinated, he has time to draft the future government of Japan. The fact that Ryoma accomplished all this is even more incredible when you recall that Ryoma was an outlaw ronin, who was constantly running away from the police, and Tokugawa officials. In Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, Romulus Hillsborough creates an historical novel that introduces one of the most important Japanese men of all time to an English speaking audience who had never heard of him before. Ryoma holds more information than most history books contain, yet is as enjoying to read as the best fictional novels about Japan. Ryoma is definitely worth reading if you are interested about the time period prior to the Meiji Restoration, Japan in general, or just enjoy reading a good book.