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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Blossoms and Shadows
|author=Lian Hearn
|borrow=Maybe
|isbn=9780857382979
|pages=478
|publisher=Quercus
|date=April 2011
|summary=As 19th century Japan undergoes a social seismic shift, our fictional narrator's intriguing life story gets buried in too many historical facts.
|cover=0857382977
|aznuk=0857382977
|aznus=0857382977
}}
Ansei 4 – or 1857 to the western calendar – Itasaki Tsuru's older sister was getting married. It was a bittersweet day and the ''skies wept in sympathy with the steady trickle of the plum rains. It was the fourth year of Ansei in the intercalary fifth month, four years after the black ships had arrived in Uraga Bay; a strange time like waiting for a potion to boil…''
I didn't.
Lian Hearn has a grand story to tell. In 1857 Japan was on the cusp of a new dawn. Internal divisions were pulling the country apart. After years of isolation, thriving on the traditions of the Emperor and the Samurai, the country had to face a double threat. Internal divisions and ancient rivalries between the 260 domains that constituted the country were hindering its development. Most of them were deeply in debt. The semi-feudal government of the Shogun was beginning to be seen to be over-stepping its remit. The dreaded ''foreigners'' had arrived in their huge ships: the Dutch, the Americans. They may be claiming that they only wanted to trade, but those in the know in Japan had seen what had happened in China. The middle kingdom with all its strength had been forced to yield Hong Kong and Shanghai. How could lowly Japan, with all its current problems expect to stand firm.?
Some in Japan saw that they had to put aside their internal differences to face up to this new enemy. Others saw the way forward in trade, and learning new ideas from the west, taking the best of all worlds. Particularly attractive were the complementary good-&and-evil of medicine and weaponry. Many others held to the old ways.
Result: turmoil. Civil wars fought the old ways with the old weapons. A plot to overthrow the government.
For more historical fiction from Japan, try [[The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell]] or for a modern explanation of the country see [[Japan Through The Looking Glass by Alan Macfarlane]]
{{amazontext|amazon=0857382977}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=80056470857382977}}
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[[Category:Literary Fiction]]
