With apologies for cross-posting.
Replies and emails should be sent to [log in to unmask]
I wish to announce that my new book, The Paths of Zatoichi, is now
available from Lexington Books:
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793601223/The-Paths-of-Zatoichi-The-Global-Influence-of-the-Blind-Swordsman
A discount code can be found on the attached flyer. Early organisation is
under way for some book launch events to be held in 2022 - which marks the
sixtieth anniversary of the first Zatoichi film release.
In the meantime, I would like to thank those that have endorsed the book so
far, and include their kind words in this email:
The blind swordsman is one of the most iconic and significant tropes in
global popular cinema, and this new volume is the most comprehensive
account to date of the transnational influence of Zatoichi on these
representations. Jonathan Wroot’s book expertly charts the impact of the
character within US genre films like Blind Fury (1989), across the
exploitation cycles of blind swordsman films produced in Taiwan and
Indonesia, and even demonstrates the continued memetic influence of the
character in blockbuster franchises like Daredevil (2015-) and Rogue One: A
Star Wars Story (2016). Highly recommended.
— Iain Smith, King’s College London
Jonathan Wroot offers a rich and compelling history of the Zatoichi
phenomenon from the early 1960s to the twenty-first century—a phenomenon
that includes not only hundreds of films, TV episodes, spin-offs, and
remakes in Japan, but also a host of imitations, appropriations, and
crossovers from Taiwan, Indonesia, and even Hollywood studios.
Painstakingly researched and written in plain, lucid language, this
excellent study is an important contribution to scholarship on the action
genre as well as on transnational flows of popular film and culture.
— Man-Fung Yip, University of Oklahoma
This important and expansive work shows how a film franchise like the
immensely popular Zatoichi series of films and TV programs should not be
understood as simply structurally contained in itself, representing a
single culture or ideology, but like the wandering and sightless Zatoichi
himself, as taking a myriad of paths in both time and space, changing as
Japan transforms, while also flowing beyond borders to affect filmmaking
from East and Southeast Asia to Hollywood. Here is where the significance
of Zatoichi—and any franchise–lies.
— Aaron Gerow, Yale University
Meticulously scholarly yet completely readable, Jonathan Wroot’s analysis
of the many incarnations of Zatochi is an important addition to the
literature on Japanese film and its transcultural influence.
— Dolores Martinez, SOAS University of London
Jonathan Wroot's exploration of the sprawling Zatoichi franchise invites
the reader to travel a path less-trodden, revealing hidden intertextual
landscapes of local and international exchange, while providing insightful
revelations about the production of Japan's famed blind-swordsman series of
films. Wroot's focus on the lesser-known avenues traveled by Zatoichi is
just as revealing as traveling with him down the famed mainstreet of
Hollywood's appropriations of the blind swordsman character. This book will
appeal to those who want to understand how Japan makes franchises as much
as it will appeal to martial arts and sci fi fans keen to seek out the
origins of the favorite genre characters. Wroot's much-needed book maps the
interlinking worlds created around Zatoichi and in doing so demonstrates
how rich and far-reaching the character has become.
— Rayna Denison, University of East Anglia
We often look at the character of Zatoichi as one of the stalwarts of
Japanese period action cinema, forever wandering the insular world of
Edo-era Japan with his trusted cane sword. Jonathan Wroot deftly
demonstrates the blind swordsman's transnational sojourns, across screens
large and small, stopping at waystations on a path that leads across the
Asian and American continents. In doing so, he underlines that the Japanese
cinema was never quite as self-contained or inward-looking as many have
presented it to be, but rather a significant, vital, and perennially
popular—in all senses of the word—node in both the Japanese media landscape
and global film history.
— Tom Mes, co-author of The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film
Dr Jonathan Wroot
Senior Lecturer in Film Studies
University of Greenwich.
PhD, MA and BA (Hons)
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Email: j <[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
https://gre.academia.edu/JonathanWroot
On Tue, 7 Sept 2021 at 15:17, Jonathan Wroot <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> NEW BOOK - The Paths of Zatoichi: The Global Influence of the Blind
> Swordsman
>
>
>
> With apologies for cross-posting.
>
>
>
> I am very happy to announce that my book The Paths of Zatoichi will be
> available in October 2021 from Lexington Books.
>
>
>
> Thank you to all those that have helped along the way, and those that have
> provided much appreciated endorsements.
>
>
>
>
> https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793601216/The-Paths-of-Zatoichi-The-Global-Influence-of-the-Blind-Swordsman
> <https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/as6mCE85YFpqEp4sNaJIp?domain=rowman.com>
>
>
>
> A discount code is available until the end of the year, and the e-book
> details should be released soon.
>
>
>
> A book launch event will be arranged next year, and sooner if possible.
> 2022 will mark 60 years of Zatoichi on-screen!
>
>
>
> Requests for inspection/review copies should be sent to [log in to unmask]
> .
>
>
>
> Please see the attached flyer and the above web-link for further details
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
>
>
> Dr Jonathan Wroot
>
>
>
> Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for Film Studies,
>
> University of Greenwich
>
>
>
> PhD, MA and BA (Hons)
>
> Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
>
>
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
----
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