Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai

In this retelling of an old tale, a warrior wrestles down an enemy commander only to discover his foe is as young as his own son. Shaken and unable to abide by his duty and slay the youth, he decides to become a monk. This famous encounter between Kumagai no Jiro Naozane and Taira no Atsumori during Japan's Heike wars has been an important part of Japan's historical and religious tradition ever since. In Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai, Donald Richie challenges and upends conventional versions of this incident, even as he vividly evokes the world of the twelfth century Japanese warrior with uncompromising precision and authority. The result is a historical novel in the grand tradition, a work at once fresh and timeless.