Background
Romulus Hillsborough was born on January 23, 1953 in Boston, Suffolk Country, Massachusetts, United States. He grew up in Los Angeles, California.
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Romulus Hillsborough
Gallery of Romulus Hillsborough
Northridge, Los Angeles, California, United States
Romulus Hillsborough received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the California State University.
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Northridge, Los Angeles, California, United States
Romulus Hillsborough received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the California State University.
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book
Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai
(The founder of Japan's first modern corporation was a swa...)
The founder of Japan's first modern corporation was a swaggering swordsman who packed a Smith and Wesson, an outlaw who led a band of samurai to overthrow the shogun, and one of the most colorful figures in Japanese history. His name was Ryoma, which is the title of the only biographical novel of Japan's greatest samurai in English. This is the authentic story of Ryoma's key role in Japan's bloody revolution, by which the country was transformed from a land ruled by feudal lords and samurai, under the hegemony of the shogun, into a modern industrialized nation under the unifying rule of the Emperor. Mid-19th-century Japan was a caldron of political upheaval and intrigue and bloody inner-fighting among samurai. This most enthralling age in the annals of Japan brought forth some of the most fascinating men in that nation's history. Those men modernized Japan, and laid the foundation for the militarism of WWII and the economic powerhouse of today. This close look into the hearts and minds of those two-sworded men provides a deep insight into the political, cultural, and psychological roots of modern Japan.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0966740165/?tag=2022091-20
1999
Samurai Sketches
(The final years of the samurai were an age of unprecedent...)
The final years of the samurai were an age of unprecedented turmoil and bloodletting in Japan. They heralded the end of nearly three centuries of rule under the Tokugawa Shogun. The rule of law was deteriorating, assassination and murder were rampant, and inner-fighting among the warrior class embroiled the nation. After the United States forced an end of over two hundred years of Japanese isolation, two contrasting philosophies were embraced by the samurai. On one side were those who would overthrow the shogun and restore the Imperial monarchy. Opposing the revolutionaries were the allies of the Tokugawa Bakufu, headed by the shogun.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0966740181/?tag=2022091-20
2001
Shinsengumi
(Shinsengumi: The Shogun's last Samurai Corps is the true ...)
Shinsengumi: The Shogun's last Samurai Corps is the true story of the notorious samurai corps formed in 1863 to arrest or kill the enemies of the Tokugawa Shogun. The only book in English about the Shinsengumi, it focuses on the corps' two charismatic leaders, Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo, both impeccable swordsmen. It is a history-in-brief of the final years of the Bakufu, which collapsed in 1867 with the restoration of Imperial rule. In writing Shinsengumi, Hillsborough referred mostly to Japanese-language primary sources, including letters, memoirs, journals, interviews, and eyewitness accounts, as well as definitive biographies and histories of the era.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DKMWOWM/?tag=2022091-20
2005
Samurai Revolution
(Samurai Revolution tells the fascinating story of Japan's...)
Samurai Revolution tells the fascinating story of Japan's historic transformation at the end of the nineteenth century from a country of shoguns, feudal lords and samurai to a modern industrialized nation. The book covers the turbulent Meiji Period from 1868 to 1912, widely considered "the dawn of modern Japan," a time of Samurai history in which those who choose to cling to their traditional bushido way of life engaged in frequent and often deadly clashes with champions of modernization. Knowledge of this period is essential to understand how and why Japan evolved into the nation it is today.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IHGVE04/?tag=2022091-20
2014
Samurai Tales
(Samurai Tales is about the legendary men from the samurai...)
Samurai Tales is about the legendary men from the samurai class who fought for the helm of power in 19th century Japan. These are stories of courage, honor, fidelity, disgrace, fate, and destiny set in the bloody time of political change and social upheaval in the final years of the Shogun.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4805313536/?tag=2022091-20
2015
Samurai Assassins: "Dark Murder" and the Meiji Restoration, 1853-1868
(Assassination — in Japanese, ansatsu or “dark murder”— wa...)
Assassination — in Japanese, ansatsu or “dark murder”— was instrumental in the samurai-led revolution known as the Meiji Restoration, by which the shogun’s military government was overthrown and the Imperial monarchy restored in 1868. The ideology and moral philosophy of the men behind the revolution — including bushidō or "the way of the warrior" — informed their actions and would become the foundation of the emperor-worship of World War II. This first-ever account in English of the assassins who drove the revolution details one of the most volatile periods in Japanese history — also known as “the dawn of modern Japan."
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XV1G86Z/?tag=2022091-20
2017
Romulus Hillsborough
Edit ProfileEducation
Romulus Hillsborough received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the California State University. While he lived in Japan, he enrolled in the Modern Japanese Language School in Shibuya to learn a Japanese language.
Career
In February 1978 Romulus Hillsborough moved to Tokyo, Japan. He lived there for sixteen years after graduation from university. There he was a teacher of English to Japanese businessmen. A few years earlier, Romulus gave up teaching salarymen to work as a writer at the world's biggest ad agency before landing a job at a popular weekly magazine, and later working as a contributing writer for a number of other Japanese publications.
In 1994 Romulus moved back to California in 1994 and settled in San Francisco. Hillsborough published "Life of a Renaissance Samurai" in 1999, then spent a year writing "Samurai Sketches", which was published in 2001, and later republished as "Samurai Tales". In 2003 he started writing "Shinsengumi", which took him a year to complete. It was published in 2005. Shortly after completing the "Shinsengumi" manuscript, Romulus began working on "Samurai Revolution". It was published ten years later in 2014.
Achievements
Works
book
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Samurai Assassins: "Dark Murder" and the Meiji Restoration, 1853-1868
(Assassination — in Japanese, ansatsu or “dark murder”— wa...)
2017 -
Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai
(The founder of Japan's first modern corporation was a swa...)
1999 -
Samurai Revolution
(Samurai Revolution tells the fascinating story of Japan's...)
2014 -
Shinsengumi
(Shinsengumi: The Shogun's last Samurai Corps is the true ...)
2005 -
Samurai Tales
(Samurai Tales is about the legendary men from the samurai...)
2015 -
Samurai Sketches
(The final years of the samurai were an age of unprecedent...)
2001
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Samurai Assassins: "Dark Murder" and the Meiji Restoration, 1853-1868
Personality
After discovering "The Hobbit" in high school, Romulus Hillsborough read Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings" over and over again until one fine day Hemingway walked into his life and changed it forever. He couldn’t get enough of him. After Hemingway, he read Dostoevsky, who introduced him to existentialism through "Crime and Punishment", "The Brothers Karamazov" and the terrifying pages of "Notes from Underground". Then Hillsborough read Sartre and Camus, before he ran smack into Hesse, whose "Steppenwolf" became his Bible. Hillsborough became acquainted with a samurai of the mid-19th century who changed his life because of Shiba Ryotaro’s "Ryoma ga Yuku". Romulus Hillsborough also has a first-degree black belt (shodan).
Interests
Connections
Romulus Hillsborough is married and has a son.
References
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Contemporary Authors
1998
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Born
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Nationality
United States