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Book Cover for: Ranald MacDonald: A Manga of His Adventure in Japan, Sean Michael Wilson

Ranald MacDonald: A Manga of His Adventure in Japan

Sean Michael Wilson

Award winning team of Sean Michael Wilson and Akiko Shimojima present their 10th book together, on the adventure of Ranald MacDonald in 19th century Japan.


In 1848, the half Scottish, half Native American MacDonald hatched a wild plan to sneak into Japan - something strictly forbidden at the time, sometimes even facing the punishment of execution. In this manga we see how he carried out his plan after leaving his home area in north west America, and the adventures he had while in captivity in Hokkaido and Nagasaki.


MacDonald is credited by some as being the first native speaker to officially teach English in Japan. His students, while under the care of the Governor of Nagasaki, included those Japanese who would go on to act as interpreters for the treaties with various foreign governments in the 1850s and 60s. Therefore, the renegade MacDonald played an important role in the opening up of Japan after more than 250 years of isolation.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Eostre Publications
  • Publish Date: Jun 14th, 2024
  • Pages: 114
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.24in - 0.36lb
  • EAN: 9789916991862
  • Categories: Adventurers & ExplorersAsia - JapanNonfiction - Biography & Memoir

About the Author

Shimojima, Akiko: - AKIKO SHIMOJIMA is a comic and manga artist from Japan. A teacher of digital comics art at a school in Tokyo, she is the illustrator of several manga and has contributed work to many other publications. Her book with Sean Michael Wilson, Secrets of the Ninja, got a medal in the 10th International Manga Award, organised by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her other book with Sean Michael Wilson, The Minamata Story, received a silver medal in the 2021 Freeman Book Awards of Columbia University and a 2022 Skipping Stones Award for books about ecology.
Wilson, Sean Michael: - SEAN MICHAEL WILSON is a Scottish writer living in Japan. He has written more than 40 books, published by a variety of US, UK and Japanese publishers and translated into twelve languages. In 2016 his book of Lafcadio Hearn stories, The Faceless Ghost was nominated for the prestigious Eisner Book Awards, and received a medal in the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards. His book The Many Not the Few has an introduction by the leader of the Labour Party and was launched at a special event in the House of Commons in 2019. In 2020 he received the Scottish Samurai Award from an association celebrating links between Japan and Scotland.