Spring Castle

by Michiko Ishimure, Bruce Allen (Translator)

Spring Castle is the epic story of Japan's bloody Shimabara Rebellion, told through the eyes of the Japanese peasants and former samurai who rose up against oppression with extraordinary bravery. Facing religious persecution, merciless taxation, drought and famine, 37,000 ordinary men, women and children led by a charismatic teenage boy named Shiro Masuda occupy an abandoned castle, only to be ruthlessly slaughtered by the Shogun's army.

History books have retold this story countless times, but renowned novelist Michiko Ishimure spent fifty years imaginatively reconstructing the lives, thoughts, fears and dreams of the forgotten people who perished that day—likely including her own ancestors. With great sensitivity, Ishimure depicts the religious awakening and struggles of a large cast of characters who gradually come to recognize that they have no choice but to fight for their freedom and dignity.

As translator Bruce Allen writes, "Ishimure devoted her life to telling the stories of people whose lives were threatened by society's desire for material progress. This book provides a requiem for the victims of this process, along with a call for recognition, reconciliation, and renewal."

Genres: Historical Fiction

480 pages, Paperback

Published November 25, 2025

About the author

Michiko Ishimure (石牟礼道子 Ishimure Michiko, born March 11, 1927) is a Japanese writer and activist.

In 1973 she won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for publicizing writings about the Minamata disease in Minamata.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Gin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engrossing read (don’t mind the dates - I was reading it while on holiday in Japan, thus on some days I was too tired to read anything!), and the characters will draw you in and your sympathies for them. Knowing their eventual fates, I could not help but think at times that maybe some of them will eventually escape that inevitability.

I think that having some background knowledge of what happened would be useful but not necessary, as the preface and the story provide the necessary information. Prior to reading this though, I had read Jonathan Clement’s Christ’s Samurai, so I was able to better appreciate the events as they unfolded.

But a large part of the story - three-quarters of it actually is about the lives of made-up characters but who nonetheless are plausible in their worldviews and behaviour. Made-up by the author because there is almost nothing of record of those peasants who died at Hara Castle in that April of 1638. Their trials and tribulations, the hardships they endure at the hands of nature (crop failures, floods) and man (the Matsukuras - their feudal overlords exacting punishing taxes, which was one of the reasons that led to the revolt historically) are realistically portrayed, up to the point whereby things came together and rebellion is the result.

The rebellion and battles makes up the final quarter of the story. The battles themselves are not described in great detail, more along the lines of so and so did this and led to this. And I appreciate that because it would be out of place with the tenor of the narrative. Only in the final moments, at the climax, do we have some semblance of a battle scene but only because it involves some of the key characters - characters whom I have come to care and like. It was tragic, and heart-wrenching, their final moments, even though I knew that was what was going to happen.

I also was reading this while travelling around Amakusa. Being there while reading the story, knowing that some of the places I visited were where those events happened, added - a layer of realism to the story. Standing at the spot where Masuda Shiro was born, looking at Yushima where the rebellion was formulated, being at Futae where the rebels marched past while enroute to Tomioka Castle (which I had to give a miss because of rain and time) - it made the reading an even more personal experience.

[Periplus Bookshop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Narasi ini mengisahkan pemberontakan berdarah yang mengubah sejarah Jepang pada saat Revolusi Shimabara, yang dilakukan oleh petani dan samurai yang terdesak oleh penindasan, pajak yang kejam, serta kelaparan. Diceritakan melalui mata pejuang-pejuang dan seorang anak muda karismatik, Shiro Masuda, yang memimpin 37.000 orang melawan pasukan Shogun demi kebebasan beragama. Novel ini memperkenalkan sisi lain dari sejarah yang terlupakan, menggali perasaan, perjuangan, dan impian mereka yang dipaksa melawan kejamnya sistem yang mengabaikan martabat manusia. Dengan bahasa puitis yang mendalam, Michiko Ishimure membawa kita untuk merasakan penindasan dan kebangkitan rohani yang melahirkan pemberontakan besar ini, sekaligus memberi penghormatan kepada mereka yang terkorbankan dalam proses panjang menuju perubahan. https://blog.periplus.com/2025/07/28/...

[Azella P · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely written book. I valued this author's insight and vision to share the history involved here.

[Mary Jeneverre · Rating 5 out of 5]

love the historical fiction of Christianity in Japan