Cristina Perez She is no longer just the renowned radio and television host—first in Telefetoday in The Nation More—, is also a prominent novelist. The Garden of Informers, The Dark Lady and Time to be reborn are some of his books. He just published a new book. It is titled samurai woman. There follow the steps of Tomoe Gozenwho “with his bow and his sword could face a god or a demon.”
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“She was worth a thousand men and fought alongside the General of the Rising Sun as his main commander and as his wife. But although she participated in the most epic military campaign of the Genpei War, she only appears in a brief story that could not be told without her,” he said. Perez on their social networks. “Searching for the traces of Tomoe, the samurai woman, is searching in the echoes of a legend,” he added.
Tomoe Gozen He is an emblematic figure of feudal Japan, recognized for his skill with the bow and sword during the wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans in the 12th century. The full title of the book is Samurai woman. In search of Tomoe Gozen, Japan’s most famous warrior. Her search as a writer involved “investigating the mystery that left her hidden in the folds of history despite being a peerless warrior.”
“Tomoe was his middle name. We will never know his first,” reads the first pages of the book. “She herself decided to forget it. Tomoe means ‘comma’, just like in calligraphy. And, because they have the shape of a comma, the leather protectors that warriors wear to prevent the arm with which they hold the bow from receiving a whiplash when they shoot the arrow are also called ‘tomoe’,” the writer continues.
Tomoe Gozen He distinguished himself by fighting alongside the General of the Rising Sun, both as a senior commander and in his personal relationship with him. Despite its role in the military campaign of the Genpei War, its history is preserved only through a brief story in which its presence is essential to understand it in its entirety. To understand it, you have to understand the honor ethic of medieval Japan.
The poetic tone stands out: “The wind whipped Tomoe’s face. Was it the wind or were she and her horse the creators of her speed? In that movement she felt similar to the arrow that was launched by her bow. She felt the wind and was also indivisible from her animal. When she rested her palm on the skin of the steed that was free of the armor, she searched with the touch of her fingers for the heartbeat of life, and she searched for herself herself.”
At the end of the book, in the acknowledgments, Pérez takes care to mention his father, his friends, his editors. Also to her husband, Luis PetriMinister of Defense of the Nation, “a man of honor who inspires me every day with his tireless effort and his moving commitment.” And above all to the people who “inspire the virtues of Honor”: “They are the light that defeats the darkness. Even if I don’t know them.”
With sensitivity, rigor, prose attentive to details and historical context, Cristina Perez continues to recover notable women that official history has often silenced. “Of the books I wrote, samurai woman It is the one that represents me the most, although I have never held a sword. The path of the sword is in its essence the path of honor and virtue. In each step there is the challenge of following it,” he writes.
