A Fool's Journey: Walking Japan's Inland Route in Search of a Notion

By William De Lange

“I had been here before: I was going from being a mere ‘interpreter’ to being a ‘cultural interpreter.’ It was a dangerous path to tread.”

Walking Japan's ancient inland route in search of a vague romantic notion, the author encounters a string of idiosyncratic characters, locals with a sto

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOYO Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9789492722072

William De Lange

William de Lange was born in 1964 in Naarden, the Netherlands to Dutch and English parents. In the late 1980s, he traveled to Japan, where he supported himself by making traditional Japanese scrolls, working as a carpenter, and writing articles for the Japan Times Weekly. Having studied at Leiden and Waseda universities during the nineties, he lived in Japan for the next decade, studying the art of Japanese fencing under Akita Moriji sensei, eighth dan master of the Shinkage-Ryu. Since then, he has written a large number of books on Japanese history, culture, and art. More recently, he has appeared in the Netflix documentary Age of Samurai. His many books include Samurai Battles, Samurai Sieges, An Encyclopedia of Japanese Castles, and The Siege of Osaka Castle. He is perhaps best known for his epic history of the Yagyu clan, and his acclaimed biography of Miyamoto Musashi.

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