Deon L de Jongh

After the epic adventure of "Genkaku," the martial code of conduct "Touhkondo," and the tale of "The Highstrung Koto," the author has now brings you a collection of twenty original short stories for your enjoyment. Each story in this collection is set during the Edo period of pre-modern Japan, when lords and their samurai ruled most of the countryside. Many warriors who were not in service lived in isolation, writing stories which carried within them a unique lesson and clarification from a time when Japanese nobility lived in accordance to "Bunbu Itchi" or "Pen and Sword in Accord." Told in an age-old tradition, along with illustrations done exclusively for each story, this book offers a unique insight into the understanding, culture, lives, and ways of the warriors who followed the old way of Japan. Every story carries within it a moral lesson, depicted by characters or events that either exemplify a great virtue or vice.

In a country on the dawn of a new century, gripped by political and cultural changes, lives an aspiring writer by the name of Akihito Takahashi, caught in the mundane business of documenting events for his uncle who is the local district officer.In hopes of a good story to break his routine, he encounters a strange boy who leads him off to an unexpected encounter with an old lady, Kazumi Tanaka, who will change his life forever. There, he discovers the meaning of acceptance, the quest for true love, and the will to fight for what is right, even if it feels wrong.By following the seemingly natural course of events, he discovers secrets and people who challenge his reality in unexpected and questioning ways.During the summer of 1868, in a small town called Utsunomiya, Japan...fact is stranger than fiction in story of The Highstrung Koto.