Included on these shelves are Nietzsche’s books, along with some of my favorite works of literature with Nietzschean themes. These books have provided me with a moral guide to help navigate through the morass of life in our times.

I have identified several fundamental Nietzshean ideas in the life and deeds of Sakamoto Ryoma, based on which I have written a long essay (not yet published).

Think big! Create!

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.

Included on this shelf are some of the most important books about Sakamoto Ryōma that I’ve referred to in my writing over the years.