Heroic With Grace

Heroic With Grace – Legendary Women of Japan – edited by Chieko Irie Mulhern

Nonfiction

322 pages

Footnotes/Endnotes: Yes

Suitable for eReaders: Yes

Illustrations: No

4 Stars

I bought this book primarily for the biography of Tomoe Gozen. I found the bios of the early women from Ancient Japan to be fascinating, but when I got into the bios of the more modern women, especially Hani Motoko, they did not hold my interest so much. Especially of Miss Hani Motoko. The author of that segment talked about what seemed like every educated woman during the Meiji period including the subject of her essay.

This book was published in 1991, and the later essays were written in the form of histories I so dislike – too many dates and dry facts, and not enough humanity.

If you are a student of Japan, this is a fascinating book, especially if you want to know how women were treated in ancient Japan. If you just want a fun read about some interesting women, well, I suggest Jessica Amanda Salmonson's trilogy about Tomoe Gozen that takes places in an alternate universe. A lot more fun. (Although the real Tomoe was pretty darned interesting in her own right!)

I gave it 4 stars because of the early essays.