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] > ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the College of Communication and Information Sciences, the University of Alabama: https://cis.ua.edu