Book Review: Imagawa Yoshimoto

Since the Okehazama thread is slowly drawing to a close, I thought it would be a nice idea to give a book review on Imagawa Yoshimoto.

Book: Imagawa Yoshimoto
Author: Owada Tetsuo
Publisher: Mineruboa Shobo
Year: 2004
Pages: 283

If you read Owada Tetsuo's books often and check the bibliography, often his has done a lot of work on the Imagawa family. This book on Yoshimoto is one of most recent and better books on the so called "Fox of Suruga."

The book contains seven chapters and covers various topics such as:

• Imagawa family history
• Yoshimoto's father and mother (Ujichika and Jukeini)
• Yoshimoto's rise to the Imagawa house
• Kososun Domei
• The economic power of the Imagawa house
• Sunpu's Imagawa culture influence
• Okehazama

When I bought the book a couple of years ago at a Nagoya bookstore, I was impressed how Owada updated the data and it was much easier to read than his other book, Imagawa Yoshimoto no Subete. The family tree is broken down and the book also contains color pictures as well. The Imagawa timeline is delicious. The research was top quality and it goes into detail on Yoshimoto's relationship with Sessai. If anything stands out in my opinion there are two. The Imagawa history and the Yoshimoto's attachment to high culture. As for Okehazama, the information is just enough to wet your lips and that is good enough for me.

Overall, this is a must have if you are a Sengoku freak or a fan of Imagawa Yoshimoto. If there was one drawback in my opinion, not enough pre-Okehazama battle information.

Nobunaga no tame!