TY - BOOK ID - 15402915 TI - Unsung heroes of old Japan AU - Isoda, Michifumi AU - Carpenter, Juliet Winters PY - 2017 VL - *9 SN - 9784916055767 4916055764 PB - Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo : Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, DB - UniCat KW - J2284.60 KW - J4000.60 KW - Japan: Genealogy and biography -- biographies -- Kinsei, Edo, Tokugawa period, early modern (1600-1867) KW - Japan: Social history, history of civilization -- Kinsei, Edo, Tokugawa period, early modern (1600-1867) KW - Kokudaya, Jūzaburō, KW - Nakane, Tōri, KW - Rengetsu, KW - Japan KW - History KW - Kokudaya, Jūzaburō, KW - Nakane, Tōri, KW - Kokudaya, Jūzaburō KW - Nakane, Tōri KW - Rengetsu UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:15402915 AB - "True stories of three little-known Japanese of the Edo period who lived lives of sublime selflessness and purity, blurring the boundary between self and others. Merchant Kokudaya Jūzaburō comes up with a brilliant scheme to rescue his dying town from poverty. He and others go deep into debt, risking all to raise money for the cash-strapped daimyo and receive annual interest in return. Prodigious scholar and former Zen monk Nakane Tōri refuses a government post and elects to live in abject poverty, weaving sandals. Though perhaps the age's greatest poet, he throws his works into the fire and ends his days teaching in a country village. Ōtagaki Rengetsu, a noted beauty in Kyoto, loses two husbands and five children. She becomes a Buddhist nun and devotes her life to poetry and pottery. With her savings she feeds the hungry and builds a bridge across Kamo River". ER -