Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 4

Clouds Above the Hill #4

by Ryōtarō Shiba, Phyllis Birnbaum (Editor)

Clouds above the Hill is the best-selling novel ever in Japan, and is now translated into English for the first time. An epic portrait of Japan in crisis, it combines graphic military history and highly readable fiction to depict an aspiring nation modernizing at breakneck speed. Best-selling author Shiba Ry tar devoted an entire decade of his life to this extraordinary blockbuster, which features Japan's emerging onto the world stage by the early years of the 20th century.

Volume IV begins with the dramatic battle of Mukden where Akiyama Yoshifuru's cavalry play a major part in the action against the Cossacks. Meanwhile, Admiral T g 's fleet sail to the Tsushima strait to intercept the Baltic Fleet en route to Vladivostok. With the help of Akiyama Saneyuki's strategies, the Baltic Fleet is totally destroyed and the Japanese fleet make a triumphant return to Yokohama.

Anyone curious as to how the "tiny, rising nation of Japan" was able to fight so fiercely for its survival should look no further. Clouds above the Hill is an exciting, human portrait of a modernizing nation that goes to war and thereby stakes its very existence on a desperate bid for glory in East Asia.

Genres: Japan, Historical Fiction

374 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

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

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shiba's extraordinary narrative shares vividly with us the unlikely fate of its 3 protagonists and a fate of a nation they embody as well. A coming of age tale for Meiji era Japan is a typical trope for many famous Japanese authors (think Kokoro by Natsume Sosetki) but this one isn't fiction.

You want to believe it is but every single twist and turn of the story is the tale of real individuals struggling to find a place for themselves in a strange new world, yet guided by the hands of fate and biases of the old. Its rare to find a translation that can maintain the emotions and feelings of a native born author but this novel (all four volumes) brushes away all expectations.

It is a story on a grand scale, like the Illiad, where nations and heroes launch themselves forward not based on rational logic but for adventure, honor, duty and their fellow comrades in arms. Highly recommend the read.

[Koit · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is very difficult to describe the brilliance of the prose in these novels. Indeed, I think that the best description is given by the author in one of his translated essays which is attached to the book:
"These individuals [the three men whom the book concentrates on] were not such exceptional talents, but, as I have mentioned already, they simply conducted themselves much like any average man of their generation. It is possible to overstate the case and imagine that without these two brothers the Japanese archipelago together with the Korean Peninsula might have ended up as Russian territory. But, if they had not existed, no doubt some other average man of there generation would have filled their boots instead.
This is what I shall write about. At this stage I cannot predict how much space I am going to need."

[Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume 4 of the Clouds Above the Hill translation brings on a new translator, Andrew Cobbing, who proves himself able at rendering Shiba Ryotaro's crisp prose. This volume brings out the highest emotions as the outnumbered Japanese army and navy eke out a heroic and improbable victory. Shiba carefully captures the cool-headed strategy of the commanders who won the war for Japan and the clumsy, muddled thinking of the powerful Russians mainly defeated by their own psychology. It must have been a real thrill to experience this historical novel as it was first serialized week by week, and it is still just as inspiring today.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

KOBOBOOKS