The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan

by Ivan Morris

Book Overview

A study of Japanese history via its failed heroes. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374521204
• ISBN13: 9780374521202
• Release Date: September 1988
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Rewarding Look at the Unrewarded

I lived in Japan for two and a half years, have visited the country several times since, and cannot speak highly enough of this book. In TNOF, Ivan Morris provides a much-needed look at - to most westerners, anyway - one of the oddest aspects of Japanese culture, the self-immolating hero. TNOF offers a rundown of Japanese populist heroes from the past 2,000 years - all of whom are doomed to complete and utter failure - and provides a convincing analysis of why Japanese culture produces such men, and why their failures actually raise their status in the eyes of many of their fellow citizens. Morris was perhaps the leading Japan scholar of his day, but even he finds many of his subjects bizaare. He deftly, though not necessarily disrespectfully, pokes fun at the absurdity of many of their situations. Not many scholars can make you laugh while they make you think.

A rewarding look at the unrewarded

I lived in Japan for two and a half years, and cannot speak highly enough of The Nobility of Failure.In TNOF, Ivan Morris provides a much-needed look at - to most westerners, anyway - one of the oddest aspects of Japanese culture - the self-immolating hero. TNOF offers a rundown of Japanese populist heroes from the past 2,000 years - all of whom are doomed to complete and utter failure - and provides a convincing analysis of why Japanese culture produces such men, and why their failures actually raise their status in the eyes of many of their fellow citizens. Morris was perhaps the leading Japan scholar of his day, but even he finds many of his subjects bizaare. He deftly, though not necessarily disrespectfully, pokes fun at the absurdity of many of their situations. Not many scholars can make you laugh while they make you think.

Fascinating study of Japanese history via its failed heroes

An engrossing, very well written book detailing the somewhat peculiar nature of the Japanese "failed hero." In contrast to the Western ideal, the Japanese do not seem to require their heroes to "win" or "succeed." Ten chapters describe ten different historical figures (or groups) throughout Japanese history who fit this oxymoronic label. Anyone interested in Japanese history would find this book at once fascinating, inciteful, and educational.