Review: “Stranger in the Shogun’s City” by Amy Stanley, and “The Artisans” by Shen Fuyu
Thumbs up for Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley. History. Thumbs (a little hesitantly) up for The Artisans: A Vanishing Chinese Village by Shen Fuyu. History.
I read these two books simultaneously and comparison is inevitable, so I will review them together. Stranger is a history of mid-19th century Edo through the life of one woman, the headstrong priest’s daughter Tsuneno, who was not historically important in any way except that she wrote a lot of letters which survived.… >> Read more