In 1276 AD, after losing a battle with the Saracens, Edward Gawain, an English knight, and his band of fellow Crusaders flee the Holy Land by sea. A violent storm sets the Crusaders adrift off the coast of Nippon (modern-day Japan), which has been under siege by Mongolian invaders from the Yuan Dynasty for several years. Hatred and distrust of foreigners run high among the locals. And Edward and his men are equally wary of their samurai captors, whose language they do not speak and whose culture they do not understand. After Edward heroically saves the life of the samurai leader from a Mongolian scouting party, barriers between East and West begin to fall. Brought to Kamakura, Edward meets Hojo Tokimune, a young regent of the shogunate. They relate to each other immediately as knight and samurai. The English Crusaders soon become accustomed to life in Nippon, and Edward falls in love with a beautiful courtesan. One day, news of a second Mongolian invasion arrives in Kamakura. Entrusted by Tokimune, Edward leaves for Hakata, where he takes command of the Nippon army and fights with his new comrades to defend the people and civilization he has come to love and respect. Does he become a ranshin-a divine force that Nippon believes has supernatural powers? Ranshin, Ted Takashima's fifth book to be translated from Japanese into English, is an epic new take on the historical-fiction genre.
