武田信玄と上杉謙信 戦国武将物語

More educational than I was hoping for

This is a children’s biography about the famous warlords Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin during the 戦国 (Warring States) period. They fought several battles against each other and, despite their political and military rivalry, came to have a mutual respect. They’re particularly famous for (possible spoiler?) having actually encountered and fought each other on the battlefield, which was highly unusual for the time.

It’s written to be easy to understand for a target age of mid-elementary school and up. However, there’s a lot in here which isn’t basic for language students from other countries. The dialogue is written in a stylized character speech to make it feel like medieval times, like 「それは、ようございました。」 The narration also makes use of some N2/N1 grammar patterns to set the mood, and I think I had to look up a few things that were outside the JLPT expected grammar too. There was also vocabulary describing the lifestyle and politics of the period.

There are a ton of names: people’s names, clan names, and place names. Dates are given with era name and year first, with a translation into CE dates using kanji. I wasn’t good at distinguishing names from unfamiliar words when I started reading this, and there are so many names that the beginning of the book was difficult. But because there were so many, I got a lot of practice at learning cues to distinguish words from names, and whether a name referred to a person or a place. After 50 pages, when the chapter about Takeda Shingen’s childhood in Kai ended and the story moved to Uesugi Kenshin’s childhood in Echigo with a whole new set of names and places to deal with, this aspect didn’t feel difficult any more. I guess I have to thank this book for making me improve that skill.

But it was boring. I was hoping that since this was aimed at kids, it would be more fun than a straight history book. The author put in a bit of dialogue and some small incidents to break up the dry history parts, but I found them bland. A lot of this was incredibly dry.

The book includes a map of central Japan with the old names in front. In back, there’s a chronology showing timelines for both daimyos with the major events of their lives, for quick reference. There’s also a character page, but it only includes 5 people, which is not nearly enough.