Samurai & Daimyo Japanese Reader: The Easy Way to Read, Listen, and Learn from Japanese History and Stories: 1

Read real Japanese history — one sentence at a time. This fully revised and expanded edition takes three essays from Japan's warrior past and breaks them down so upper beginners (JLPT N4–N3) can actually read them: The Three Warlords Who Unified Japan — Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu, and the famous cuckoo poems that capture each man in a single line. Sakamoto Ryoma, the Reformer — the low-ranking samurai who helped end the shogunate and open the door to modern Japan. Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's Greatest Swordsman — including the duel at Ganryujima, won with a wooden sword carved from an oar. Every sentence gets its own page: furigana on all kanji, a complete vocabulary list with grammar notes, and cultural notes and maps of Japan where they help. New in this edition: • Before You Read primers — historical background and grammar patterns to watch for, so you start each essay oriented. • Grammar Spotlights & Cultural Notes — short boxed explanations right where you need them. • Review & Practice — true/false, comprehension, particle, and translation exercises for every story, with a complete answer key. • Kanji in Focus — one page per key kanji: stroke-order diagram, readings, component parts, and a memory hook. • Makoto+ app access — every sentence in this book is also in the free Makoto+ Sentence Explorer (web, iOS, Android). Tap any sentence to hear the audio, see word-by-word breakdowns, and quiz yourself with built-in games. Still included free: • Native-speaker audio at two speeds — natural pace and slow & clear — recorded by a professionally trained radio announcer. • Anki flashcard decks for all the vocabulary. • PDF and EPUB editions. Work through each essay with the definitions, then reread the full Japanese text without helps, test yourself, and check your understanding against the English summary. If a passage feels tough, the vocabulary notes and Anki deck will get you through it. Questions about the book or Japanese in general? Our email is inside — we answer personally.