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Based on real characters and events, Storm Rider is a vivid historical portrait of Japan and America in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as an exciting high-seas adventure and a moving story of a man lost between two cultures.
At the age of thirteen, Hikotaro is orphaned and left to a life at sea. When the merchant vessel he sails on is caught in a violent storm on the Pacific, an American ship comes to the rescue and takes the young boy to San Francisco. With trepidation and hope, the boy-now dubbed Hikozo-accepts his new country. Still, he dreams of returning to Japan, but shogunate policy forbids reentry to Japanese who have been abroad. He tries anyway, only to be refused and returned to America, where a wealthy American adopts Hikozo and introduces him to a world of influence and power. Some ten years later, Hikozo returns to a Japan stirred into violence by the opening of the country. At the same time, America is in the midst of its bloody Civil War, and Hikozo finds that there is no place he can call home.
- Sales Rank: #3124252 in Books
- Published on: 2005-03-14
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .95" w x 5.50" l, 1.03 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 372 pages
- ISBN13: 9780156031783
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
From Publishers Weekly
Set in the midâ€"19th century, this fourth of Yoshimura's novels to be translated into English tells the astonishing story of a 13-year-old Japanese boy who becomes a castaway, is rescued by an American ship and brought to San Francisco, and finally returns years later to his native land. Unfortunately, while the circumstances the narrative coversâ€"storms at sea, unspeakable privations, violent rebellions on several continents, amazing coincidences and ironic reversalsâ€"are dramatic and surprising, the novel itself is written (or perhaps translated) in dry circumstantial detail, wooden in affect. Born in a small village on an island on the Inland Sea, Hikotaro, aka Hikozo and Joseph Hiko, traverses more than oceans in a lifelong voyage. He faces the cultural dislocations of an alien in American society and the violent enmity of his countrymen when he returns to Japan as a Westernized employee of the U.S. consulate. His life spans the Taiping Rebellion in China, the U.S. Civil War and the turbulent period before the Meiji Restoration in Japan. Along the way he meets three U.S. Presidentsâ€"Pierce, Buchanan and Lincolnâ€"travels with Commodore Perry's fleet, is promised a job by Secretary of State William Seward and crosses paths with many other notable people. After returning to his homeland, he founds Japan's first newspaper and uses his skill in English to succeed in several businesses. But beneath his achievements lies the sadness of a man without a country. Readers can't fail to find the novel's historical details fascinating, but its protagonist and his shipmates, whose exhaustively detailed experiences are also interpolated into the narrative, lack emotional depth, and Yoshimura's matter-of-fact prose fails to sustain dramatic tension.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
One of Japan's most distinguished novelists appears in English for the fourth time, in a tale of nineteenth-century transpacific life. A Japanese boy is saved at sea by an American ship and taken to San Francisco, which, under the shogun's rule, means that he cannot return to Japan. He tries, sailing with Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan and giving readers a Japanese perspective on that historic mission. But he finds no welcome and must return to an America on the verge of civil war, where he is adopted by a wealthy American. In time the overthrow of the shogunate allows him to return to Japan to play a part in the Meiji Restoration, which most Americans know only from samurai flicks. They deserve the closer encounter Yoshimura's book provides, despite its rather slow pacing and slightly stiff prose, which may be attributable to the translation. As much a work of scholarship as of fiction, it may find its most dedicated readers in the audience for serious historical fiction. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Set in the midâ€"19th century, this fourth of Yoshimura's novels to be translated into English tells the astonishing story of a 13-year-old Japanese boy who becomes a castaway, is rescued by an American ship and brought to San Francisco, and finally returns years later to his native land. Unfortunately, while the circumstances the narrative coversâ€"storms at sea, unspeakable privations, violent rebellions on several continents, amazing coincidences and ironic reversalsâ€"are dramatic and surprising, the novel itself is written (or perhaps translated) in dry circumstantial detail, wooden in affect. Born in a small village on an island on the Inland Sea, Hikotaro, aka Hikozo and Joseph Hiko, traverses more than oceans in a lifelong voyage. He faces the cultural dislocations of an alien in American society and the violent enmity of his countrymen when he returns to Japan as a Westernized employee of the U.S. consulate. His life spans the Taiping Rebellion in China, the U.S. Civil War and the turbulent period before the Meiji Restoration in Japan. Along the way he meets three U.S. Presidentsâ€"Pierce, Buchanan and Lincolnâ€"travels with Commodore Perry's fleet, is promised a job by Secretary of State William Seward and crosses paths with many other notable people. After returning to his homeland, he founds Japan's first newspaper and uses his skill in English to succeed in several businesses. But beneath his achievements lies the sadness of a man without a country. Readers can't fail to find the novel's historical details fascinating, but its protagonist and his shipmates, whose exhaustively detailed experiences are also interpolated into the narrative, lack emotional depth, and Yoshimura's matter-of-fact prose fails to sustain dramatic tension.
(Publishers Weekly)
One of Japan's most distinguished novelists appears in English for the fourth time, in a tale of nineteenth-century transpacific life. A Japanese boy is saved at sea by an American ship and taken to San Francisco, which, under the shogun's rule, means that he cannot return to Japan. He tries, sailing with Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan and giving readers a Japanese perspective on that historic mission. But he finds no welcome and must return to an America on the verge of civil war, where he is adopted by a wealthy American. In time the overthrow of the shogunate allows him to return to Japan to play a part in the Meiji Restoration, which most Americans know only from samurai flicks. They deserve the closer encounter Yoshimura's book provides, despite its rather slow pacing and slightly stiff prose, which may be attributable to the translation. As much a work of scholarship as of fiction, it may find its most dedicated readers in the audience for serious historical fiction.
(Booklist - Roland Green)
Most helpful customer reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
For history lovers interested in the opening of Japan.
By Mary Whipple
The well known, true story of Manjiro, a young Japanese sailor lost at sea, rescued by American sailors, and brought to the US, where he learned English and later worked as an interpreter, is the framework for this study of the opening of Japan to trade. The fictional Hikotaro, who became Hikozo, and later Joseph Heco, is thirteen in 1850, when he is rescued by an American ship from a rudderless and drifting Japanese fishing boat. Hiko's observations about this strange ship, the Americans who have rescued him, and the cities of San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Macao, to which they travel, establish the cultural differences and the contrast between the Americans' overwhelming desire for trade and the Japanese resistance to it. Hiko knows that he will not be allowed to return his own country because he is considered a criminal, his "crime" being his exposure to the outside world and to Christianity.
Though he never stops wanting to return to Japan, Hiko does the only things he can do--he makes friends among Americans, learns the language, keeps his mind open to new ideas, and travels the world on American ships. Eventually he meets senators, President Buchanan, and even President Lincoln during the Civil War, before finally returning to Japan as an American interpreter when the shogunate opens the country to trade in the 1860s. "Faction samurai" are as opposed to this as many Americans are to the Emancipation Proclamation, and bloodshed and fires directed at foreigners make life for Hiko and the American consular officers for whom he works very dangerous.
For someone interested in the opening of Japan, the novel provides interesting historical insights. As a novel, however, the book is a challenge. The plot has no real dramatic tension or focus, simply following Hiko around for many years. Inexplicably, the narrative also splits several times, following the lives of other Japanese castaways whom Hiko meets as they, too, try to return to Japan. Though this gives additional historical information, it further fragments the reader's already weak identification with Hiko, since he is not present in these side narratives. Episodic and lacking in urgency, the novel feels more like an historical record than a plot which the author has directed. With undeveloped characters, no love story, and no humor to change the tone or mood, this is a novel more geared to the historian than the lover of literature. Mary Whipple
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
(2.5) A man of two worlds with no home
By Luan Gaines
After his mother dies unexpectedly, young Hikotaro expects great adventures when he joins his stepfather, who is captain of his own vessel. Later Hizoko, as he is nicknamed, transfers to another ship, training as a cook, learning the dangerous ways of the sailor?s life. Unpredictable weather is a common occurrence for the ships that sail near Japan?s coastline and the men accept this danger as the fate of seamen.
When the ship is caught up in a fierce storm and virtually destroyed after days of incessant pounding from the waves, the increasingly desperate crew is saved by an American ship sailing to San Francisco, in America. So begins Hikozo?s attempt to return to his homeland, a process that is thwarted both by world events and the seclusion policy of Japan. This policy forbids a man?s reentry into Japan after traveling abroad. The strict control is eventually loosened, but not for many years. Meanwhile, Hikozo cannot return to the land of his birth.
Hizoko?s experiences define his life between two continents: he is essentially a man of two countries, in the unique position of observing both, but unable to return to the land of his birth. Through Hizoko?s adventures, the author describes world events from the opening of trade with Japan in 1839 to the American Civil War, as well as the California Gold Rush. Eventually Hizoko does return to Japan, where he uses his Americanized name, Joseph Heco, but his American citizenship stigmatizes the rest of his life.
This novel is a translation of the original and, while historically precise, the reading can be dry and uninspiring. Whether this is due to the original manuscript or the translation is difficult to ascertain. However, this is a rich period in world politics, as America flexes its military muscle, forcing Japan to open to trade and the influx of opportunists who flock to California, infected with gold fever. With the advent of the Civil War, Hizoko chooses not to return to America; rather, he remains a man lost between cultures, a prisoner of history, denied a homeland that recognizes his identity. Luan Gaines/2004.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Not a great story but interesting history
By Stretchkev
Storm Rider is primarily a story about a young Japanese castaway rescued by American sailors trying to get back to his homeland. Hikotaro, who became Hikozo, and later Joseph Heco becomes a successful interpreter for various commercial enterprises and the US government during the period when Japan was opening itself to western trade again in the 1850's. Even though Hikozo is able to return to his homeland in his heart he is knows that his fellow countrymen will always be considered a criminal for becoming a citizen of his adopted country and converting to Christianity. Never being truly American and not able to assimilate himself back into Japanese society, Hikozo is destined to drift between this cultural divide unsure of where he fits and where his true loyalties lie.
On the surface this would make a compelling story. However, Yoshimura fails to deliver the goods. Instead the reader is presented with an interesting historical perspective of the opening of Japan but not much else. The main plot has no real dramatic tension or motivation. The story simply follows Hikozo around for many years detailing his life and all the people who help him return to Japan, while on some level this is fairly interesting it doesn't make for a very compelling read. On top of that Yoshimura felt it necessary to split the narrative several times, following the lives of other Japanese castaways whom Hikozo meets as they, too, try to return to Japan. All these stories felt like an epilogue sandwiched in the middle without much thought as to how it would affect the pace and overall structure of the story. It's all a bit strange why Yoshimura choose to fragment the story in this way, something I would expect from a first time novelist, not a seasoned veteran. Also, the translation while probably accurate and precise his often very dry and a times seems to breakdown the cadence/rhythm of Yoshimura's writing that is quite jarring and hard and adds breaks to the narrative that shouldn't be there. Really Storm Rider feels like a thinly veiled historical narrative Nakahama Manjiro's life and the opening of Japan. With some judicious editing and a better translator this could have been a really good novel. Or maybe Yoshimura should have just stuck with a historical biography of Nakahama Manjiro and not have tried to fictionalize his life story.
On a positive note Storm Rider has not deterred my desire to read Shipwrecks by the same author. Even though I may not have enjoyed Storm Rider as much as I would have liked, I did find some real potential in Yoshimura's writing. Added bonus I learned about Nakahama Manjiro, an unintentional side effect of googleing. Oh and now I feel I need to learn more about Japanese culture and history to really understand setting and moods of Japanese fiction.
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