Writing the four novels of the Shogun Quartet and later lecturing on the Meiji Restoration I spent a great deal of time imagining myself back to Kagoshima. It was Princess Atsu’s home town, from where she set out on her fateful journey to Edo, the story I told in The Shogun’s Queen. It was also the home of the Satsuma Rebellion, which forms the heart of The Samurai’s Daughter. And it was the home of the Satsuma warriors who were key in bringing about the Meiji Restoration – or rather Revolution – of 1868.
So I was thrilled when I had the chance to go back to that beautiful city, the Naples of Japan, in 2018.
And even more thrilled to see Princess Atsu’s palanquin in the museum there – a reproduction of it, rather; the original is now in the Sackler gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.