Friday, July 30, 2010

Nihon no Kinyoubi (7)

Before anything, have you checked out my Make Me A Button Contest?!? I'm asking people to make a cool button for this feature. Some fun Japanese themed books are up for grabs, so be sure to check it out, if you haven't already! I haven't received any entries yet, so get on it! I'm dying to see what you'll come up with!

Nihon no Kinyoubi (Japanese Friday) is a new feature here at Brizmus Blogs Books inspired by French Friday, which is a weekly feature hosted by Charlotte at the Book on the Hill. Charlotte features French bookish things, and I plan on featuring Japanese bookish things, though I won't limit myself if I find something non-bookish that I think will interest you guys.

This week, let's look at something bookish.
Most Japanese (globally) best-selling authors write, oddly enough, mysteries. Now, I'm a mystery fan, but I've never actually read a Japanese mystery.
One of the few Japanese bestselling authors that does not write mystery just so happens to write in one of my favorite genres - Historical Fiction.

Perhaps you've heard of him: 司馬遼太郎 Or, in English, Ryotaro Shiba. Author of the Last Shogun.

I love this book, and I'm guessing you would, too! This week, I thought we'd look at the English and the Japanese covers of this book, as they are amazingly different.
English cover


Japanese cover


Don't even ask me to try to translate that title! Tokugawa something.
It's amazing how plain the Japanese one is compared to the English one.
What do you guys think?

3 comments:

Tales of Whimsy said...

My hubby loves this one :)

Liz @ Cleverly Inked said...

It is so plain but I think they both are.

corporate housing said...

I speak fluent Japanese and I am from the Ivory Coast. It is so boring because no one here speaks Japanese. I score many goals on my soccer team because my nickname is The Drogs

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