Best Historical Novels About Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

1646–1709

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was the fifth Tokugawa shogun, ruling from 1680 to 1709. His government promoted Neo-Confucian learning and strict ceremonial authority, but he became notorious for animal-protection edicts; the Akō Incident unfolded during his reign.

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi also worked as daimyo, shogun, Naidaijin, and Konoe Daisho. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi belonged to the Tatebayashi-Tokugawa family; Tokugawa family and operated within Tokugawa shogunate; Japan. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was born in Edo Castle.

Lucia St. Clair Robson’s The Tokaido Road sets its journey against the Akō Incident and the shogunal law of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, forcing characters to weigh personal loyalty against the authority of Edo. Laura Joh Rowland’s The Ronin’s Mistress makes the forty-seven rōnin’s revenge on Kira Yoshinaka a direct challenge to the legal order over which Tsunayoshi presides. In The Concubine’s Tattoo, the death of one of the shogun’s favoured women draws Sano Ichiro into the protected inner quarters of Tsunayoshi’s court. The Iris Fan takes Sano and Reiko to the end of the reign, when the shogun’s declining authority makes every investigation politically dangerous. The Shogun’s Daughter begins with the death of Tsunayoshi’s daughter Tsuruhime and turns the succession of an ageing ruler into part of the murder inquiry.

Historical novels and book series featuring Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1 series)

Sano Ichiro Novels in Order

by Laura Joh Rowland 18 books 4.0(29,353)

The Sano Ichiro novels follow a samurai investigator serving Tokugawa Tsunayoshi from 1689 to 1709. Beginning with Shinju, Sano repeatedly places evidence and personal conscience against orders designed to protect status. His work moves from Edo Castle and the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter to Nagasaki, Kyoto and Japan’s northern…