the subject of the book is one of the most famous true samurai revenge tales in Japanese history, and was in 2013 made into a Hollywod movie with Keanu Reeves author Sato is well known to readers of Japanese literature and samurai history and has been called "“the pre-eminent translator of Japanese poetry in our time" tales of samurai loyalty and bushido are evergreen with American readers Sato's fresh combination of history, poetry, cultural analysis, and fictional narrative is a thoroughly new way of approaching a story that is already known to Western readers fits right into Stone Bridge's community of readers interested in Japanese culture and history