Samurai Assassins · "Dark Murder" and the Meiji Restoration, 1853-1868

The Japanese word for assassination is ansatsu, “dark murder,” and its significance in the samurai-led revolution that was the Meiji Restoration, by which the shōgun’s military government was overthrown and the Imperial monarchy restored in 1868, forms the substance of this book. The ideology and moral philosophy of the men behind the revolution--including bushido or "the way of the warrior"--informed their actions and would become the foundation of the Emperor-worship of World War II. This first-ever account in English of the assassins who drove the revolution details one of the most volatile periods in Japanese history--also known as "the dawn of modern Japan."