num_pages: 368
description: With all the adventure, derring-do, and bloodcurdling battle scenes of his earlier book, Nathaniel’s Nutmeg , acclaimed historian Giles Milton dazzles readers with the true story of William Adams—the first Englishman to set foot in Japan (and the inspiration for James Clavell’s bestselling novel Shogun). Beginning with Adams’s startling letter to the East India Company in 1611—more than a decade after he’d arrived in Japan— Samurai William chronicles the first foray by the Westinto that mysterious closed-off land. Drawing upon the journals and letters of Adams as well as the other Englishmen who came looking for him, Samurai William presents a unique glimpse of Japan before it once again closed itself off from the worldfor another two hundred years.
language: English
title: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan
titlecomplete: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan
characters: Richard Wickham, Hidetada, Hideyori, Specx, Thomas Smythe, King Foyne, Richard Cocks, William Eaton, Hirado, Lucas Antheunis, William Adams
genres: Historical, Asian Literature, History, Japan, Biography, Adventure, Asia, Japanese History, Travel, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 1869
publisher: Penguin Books