Before the Dawn

Rating:
Summary: Good as a history work
Review: Before the Dawn explores the world of Tokugawa Japan as a personal tribute to Shimizaki Toson's father. Toson spent years researching this work by studying history and the familial records of his family and its neighbors. The result is a book written in a somewhat stilted and isolated manner, which supposedly is quite nice in Japanese, but the translation is unable to bring through. The real value of this work is to historians, however. Though this is a fictional novel, it is based on real events and real people in rural Japan. Toson with this novel to pay homage to his father actually completed the first study of rural Tokugawa in a readable and interesting format. Those interested in this period will find it most valuable, others should stay away.