燃えよ剣（下）

燃えよ剣 #2

by Ryōtarō Shiba, 司馬 遼太郎

「かれはいったい、歴史のなかでどういう位置を占めるためにうまれてきたのか」（「あとがき」より）
歴史と今を見つめ続けた司馬遼太郎さんが、自らにこう問いつつ新選組副長・土方歳三の生涯を鮮烈に描ききった『燃えよ剣』。下巻では物語もいよいよ佳境に突入。新選組も幕府軍の一角として加わり、薩長と激突した鳥羽・伏見の戦い。ここを転換点として幕末も最終局面を迎える。甲州勝沼、下野宇都宮、奥州会津……新政府軍に追い詰められていく過程で局長の近藤勇は離脱し、沖田総司は病死。残る隊士を束ねて歳三がたどり着いたのは函館五稜郭。そして、最後の決戦が迫る――！　渦巻く時代の激流に抗して闘い続け、歴史にその名を深く刻んだ男。司馬さんが活写する歳三の姿に、数多の日本人が心震わせてきました。不世出の小説家、司馬遼太郎の代表作『燃えよ剣』、電子書籍という器を得て、今ここに新たに登場！

Genres: History, Japanese Literature

464 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Ryōtarō Shiba (司馬 遼太郎) born Teiichi Fukuda (福田 定一 Fukuda Teiichi, August 7, 1923 – February 12, 1996) in Osaka, Japan, was a Japanese author best known for his novels about historical events in Japan and on the Northeast Asian sub-continent, as well as his historical and cultural essays pertaining to Japan and its relationship to the rest of the world.

Shiba studied Mongolian at the Osaka School of Foreign Languages (now the School of Foreign Studies at Osaka University) and began his career as a journalist with the Sankei Shimbun, one of Japan's major newspapers. After World War II Shiba began writing historical novels. The magazine Shukan Asahi printed Shiba's articles about his travels within Japan in a series that ran for 1,146 installments. Shiba received the Naoki Prize for the 1959 novel Fukuro no Shiro ("The Castle of an Owl"). In 1993 Shiba received the Government's Order of Cultural Merit. Shiba was a prolific author who frequently wrote about the dramatic change Japan went through during the late Edo and early Meiji periods. His most monumental works include Kunitori Monogatari (国盗り物語), Ryoma ga Yuku (竜馬がゆく; see below), Moeyo Ken, and Saka no ue no kumo (坂の上の雲), all of which have spawned dramatizations, most notably Taiga dramas aired in hour-long segments over a full year on NHK television. He also wrote numerous essays that were published in collections, one of which—Kaidō wo Yuku—is a multi-volume journal-like work covering his travels across Japan and around the world. Shiba is widely appreciated for the originality of his analyses of historical events, and many people in Japan have read at least one of his works.

Several of Shiba's works have been translated into English, including his fictionalized biographies of Kukai (Kukai the Universal: Scenes from His Life, 2003) and Tokugawa Yoshinobu (The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, 2004), as well as The Tatar Whirlwind: A Novel of Seventeenth-Century East Asia (2007).

(from Wikipedia)

Alternative Names:

Fukuda, Teiichi
Ryotaro, Shiba
Shiba, Ryoutarou
Ryoutarou, Shiba
Sima, Liaotailang
司馬遼太郎
司马辽太郎
Shiba, Rëotaro
Шиба, Рёотаро
司马辽太郎
司馬, 遼太郎
司馬遼太郎
司場遼太郎

Reviews

[Rikuya Osawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give 6 stars to this one... This is the second half of the non-fiction novel Moeyo Ken (燃えよ剣) which is a novel by Japanese author Ryōtarō Shiba. It dramatizes the life of Hijikata Toshizō, a member of the Shinsengumi, a small elite group of swordsmen that was organized by commoners and low rank samurai, active in Japan during the bakumatsu, the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867.

Ahh, such an emotional climax at the end. Its educational value is outstanding, the writing style unquestionable, and the characters (real but dramatized) so vivid and alive. I instantly became a big fan of the author who captured this one of the most important moments in Japan's long history so astonishingly well.

[Yumiko Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

土方歳三，其方に惚れた。

人生初めて読んだ時代物に、とてつもない感動で涙が止まらない。

[Kiyoshi Sakata]

司馬遼太郎の作品。読んでみたい

[Kiyoshi Sakata]

司馬遼太郎の作品。読んでみたい。