Based on real characters and events, Storm Rider is a vivid historical portrait of Japan and America in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as an exciting high-seas adventure and a moving story of a man lost between two cultures. At the age of thirteen, Hikotaro is orphaned and left to a life at sea. When the merchant vessel he sails on is caught in a violent storm on the Pacific, an American ship comes to the rescue and takes the young boy to San Francisco. With trepidation and hope, the boy-now dubbed Hikozo-accepts his new country. Still, he dreams of returning to Japan, but shogunate policy forbids reentry to Japanese who have been abroad. He tries anyway, only to be refused and returned to America, where a wealthy American adopts Hikozo and introduces him to a world of influence and power. Some ten years later, Hikozo returns to a Japan stirred into violence by the opening of the country. At the same time, America is in the midst of its bloody Civil War, and Hikozo finds that there is no place he can call home. PRAISE FOR SHIPWRECKS “Haunting and austerely beautiful . . .Makes you wonder why it took so long for an American publisher to discover him.”—THE NEW YORK TIMES Based on real events, the moving story of a man lost between two cultures. Orphaned at the age of thirteen, Hikotaro resigns himself to a life at sea. But when the merchant vessel he sails on is caught in a violent storm, he is taken to San Francisco by American rescuers. Made an outcast by the shogunate policy forbidding reentry to Japanese who have been abroad, Hikotaro accepts his new country with trepidation and hope. Still, he dreams of returning to his native land. Yet when he finally does, he realizes that there is now no place he can call home. PRAISE FOR SHIPWRECKS : "Haunting and austerely beautiful."-- The New York Times "Extraordinary in detail and verisimilitude . . . a haunting read."-- Los Angeles Times Book Review PRAISE FOR ON PAROLE : "An austerely graceful book, which should help cement Yoshimura's reputation here and bring over more of his twenty bestselling novels in its wake."-- The Washington Post Book World "A neat novel . . . There's nothing picturesque about the story, and it's a measure of Yoshimura's mastery that we're still disturbed and fascinated."-- The New York Times Book Review PRAISE FOR ONE MAN'S JUSTICE : "[Yoshimura is] a writer of great psychological acuteness . . . One Man's Justice is a provocative exploration of the effects of war on the human soul."--San Jose Mercury News "Gripping, remarkable. . . . A deft, accurate writer, Yoshimura captures a man in limbo with unnerving insight and definition."--The Christian Science Monitor Akira Yoshimura is the prizewinning author of twenty novels and short-story collections, many of them bestsellers in Japan. He is president of Japan's writers' union and a member of PEN International. Storm Rider is the fourth of his novels to be translated into English. Yoshimura lives in Tokyo. Akira Yoshimura is the prize-winning author of twenty novels and short-story collections, many of them bestsellers in Japan. One Man's Justice is his third novel to be translated into English. HIKOTARO SAT ON THE BEACH, clutching his knees close, and gazed out at the sea. A long, narrow strip of white stretched far away on the gravelly beach, right at the water's edge-the line of shells washed up whenever the surf grew rough. The early autumn sky was serene, without a cloud. The smell of the sea wafted toward him on the faint breeze. To the left Awaji Island was visible, to the right Shodo Island and two large ships in a row sailing from west to east. Behind them a smaller boat slowly plowed its way through the water. After his mother died, Hikotaro stopped attending the local temple school and spent most of his time like this, staring out at the sea. Even when it rained, this is where he could be found. What he saw before him was not the sea, though, but his mother's pale, beautiful face. It was hard for him, at thirteen, to believe that she was gone. He was born August 2 in the third year of Tempo (1837) in the village of Komiya in the province of Harima, on the shores of the Sea of Harima in the Inland Sea. His father died when Hikotaro was still an infant, and he had no memories of him. He and his mother lived alone after that, but several years later his mother, an attractive woman, remarried a man named Kichizaemon from the nearby village of Hamada in Honjo Village. Kichizaemon's wife had died, and he'd been living with his son. Kichizaemon was the captain on a large ship that plied the waters between Hyogo and Edo, and more often than not he was away from home. Hikotaro felt uneasy at his mother's remarrying, but it turned out his fears were groundless. His stepfather loved him as if Hikotaro were his own child, and was always sure to bring home presents from Edo that were bound to please the boy. His stepbrother too, Unomatsu, was happy to ha