Zenta and Matsuzo Back in Business: Samurai Books Will be reprinted!If you like adventure stories, check out the Zenta and Matsuzo Samurai Series. These are samurai stories from 16th century Japan. Two samurai, Zenta and Matsuzo, are unemployed and looking for work. In those days, being an unemployed samurai meant you got into lots of fights and had to defend your honor. Lots of swashbuckling adventure!
The series has been out of print. But happily, Tuttle Publishing will be reprinting six Zenta and Matsuzo books! The first four books can be ordered now, with the rest of the series to follow.
Zenta and Matsuzo Samurai Series
The Samurai and the Long Nose Devils
The first book in the Zenta and Matsuzo adventure series, this book introduces the two young unemployed samurais (ronin). They encounter one adventure after another in 16th century feudal Japan. Zenta and Matsuzo find work with Nobunaga, a brilliant and unscrupulous warlord. They are appointed as bodyguards to some Portuguese missionaries. These foreigners -- with their firearms, their pale faces, and their religion called Christianity are hated and feared. For Zenta and Matsuzo, they represent more action than they had bargained for.
Paperback: 207 pages
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (August 15, 2004)
ISBN: 0804836086
White Serpent Castle
Zenta and Matsuzo arrive at a castle shaped like a writhing serpent and said to be haunted. According to legend, the daughter of a former lord had thrown herself into the castle moat and had been changed into a white serpent. From that time on, the serpent's ghost was said to emerge from its resting place whenever a crisis threatened. And now a crisis has come.
Paperback: 179 pages
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (September 15, 2004)
ISBN: 0804836094
Valley of the Broken Cherry Trees
Zenta and Matsuzo rest at a rural inn, expecting to enjoy the spectacular cherry blossoms nearby. They soon are involved in puzzling mysteries: court intrigue, an invitation to join an assassination and the unexplained mutilations of the ancient cherry trees.
Paperback: 252 pages
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (April 15, 2005)
ISBN: 0804836108
Village of the Vampire Cat
Zenta and Matsuzo travel to visit the honored teacher of Zenta's youth, only to find the old warrior and the village terrorized by a force or forces unknown. They must help overcome a large gang of bandits and a madman who has brutally murdered four young women.
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (April 15, 2005)
ISBN: 0804836116
Island of Ogres
The Villagers and fishermen on the Japanese island talked in whispers about the unexplained disappearances of chickens and dogs -- a sure sign that the ogres were demanding a sacrifice. When Kajiro , a young unemployed samurai lands on the island the villagers mistake him for a famous warrior who would save them. But the ogres soon become the least of Kajiro's problems.
The Coming of the Bear
When a sudden squall dashes their boat onto a shore, Zenta and Matsuzo find themselves on an island inhabited by Ainus, a strange round-eyed people. However, it becomes clear that the two friends are really captives, and they plot their escape to the Japanese settlement on another part of the island.
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