Included on these shelves are about forty of the most important books on the Bakumatsu era (“end of the shogunate,” 1853–1868) that I have referred to in my writing over the years (though by no means all of them). These volumes range from biographies and memoirs to domain histories and studies of the Meiji Restoration, and they have informed my work on Sakamoto Ryōma, Katsu Kaishū, the Shinsengumi, and other key figures of the “samurai revolution at the dawn of modern Japan.”

For readers interested in how I’ve drawn on these sources in my own books, see Books at a Glance.