Ryotaro Shiba is one of the most famous writer in Japan even now, although he is a defunct person. Why did he begin to write a historical novel? What's his motivation? What was always he thinking, when he wrote the novels?
I wanted to know it. So I had read his essays, travel writings and the talk collections. I let the novels wait. The number of books was eighty volumes.
After I read those books, at last it dawned on me why Ryotaro Shiba began to write a novel. I studied many thing from his view of history at the same time. I could understand my inner psyche. While I also had received influence in the trend of the society of the time, or agitation of mass media, I had been a man who had had a foolish idea or acted. I always had questions about everything, That my character saved me from taking the wrong path. Though I met and was impressed by Ryotaro Shiba's works in my twenties, I did not try to learn from him deeply. I regretted not having done it.
Knowledge of Ryotaro is not only widely deep, but it is carried through by the love and warning to people in the world including Japanese. His words are not difficult at all, and he talks about history in everyday expression and humor. I would like to introduce such things in this chapter.
When we turn our eyes to Ryotaro Shiba's novels, we can see historical, period and romantic novels. How did Shiba read the ancient documents and materials? How did he write up a work? What did he want to draw? I also wants to touch such topics in the next reports.