Samurai

Takashi Matsuoka’s Samurai series follows Lord Genji, head of the fictional Okumichi clan, and Emily Gibson, an American missionary who arrives in Japan during the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1861, foreign ships, Christian missions and political pressure are disrupting the established order. Genji’s inherited gift of prophecy draws Emily and the other newcomers into a conflict involving rival samurai houses, assassins and divided loyalties.

The second novel expands the story across six centuries through scrolls recording the Okumichi clan’s concealed history. Events beginning in 1311 illuminate the origins of the family’s prophetic inheritance and the betrayals that shaped Genji’s position. Together, the novels combine the opening of Japan with a multigenerational clan chronicle, linking cultural confrontation and political change to questions of fate, honour, love and survival.