Maybe you've seen movies like "Shogun" written by James Clavell with Richard Chamberlain as the leading actor. You still remember "The Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise. They are excellent entertainment films about Japanese warriors. However, the producers did not base these films on actual historical events. They are good entertainment, but more is needed. The New Tale of Taira, written by the famous Eiji Yoshikawa, is a true historical novel classic from Japan. The new Taira tale is his life's work. One literary critic describes it as eternal literature. The samurai saga tells of the rise and fall of the Taira samurai tribe at the end of the 12th century in Japan. It covers around 50 years of the history of this Far Eastern country.

In the beginning, the warrior tribes were subterranean people. The emperor, I would rather say tenno, was the absolute monarch. He let the nobility implement his policies.

The warriors laboriously made themselves heard. The samurai families had first to decide among themselves who had the strongest army. This struggle to rule Japan's worrier  involved brutal wars. The victor took power away from the tenno and the nobles. The victorious family formed its samurai government in Kamakura.