At the far north of Asia lies Japan, the mysterious land Marco Polo called Zipangu. When Europeans first visited Japan in the early 1500s it was the large island of Kyushu where they made landfall and began meeting both ordinary fishermen and farmers as well as the samurai and their lords. Kyushu was the gateway into Japan.
Yet Kyushu was more than just an entry point for Europeans. It was the stepping stone for the prehistoric immigrants to Japan who came from the Mongolian steppes and from other parts of Asia. It was also the gateway for Chinese culture, tea, and rice cultivation.
A few years ago a foreign man settled in Kyushu alone and began to explore.
He found a host of things that elude the casual visitor — Christian samurai, Japan’s first ancient rice field, its first tea bushes, yakuza gangsters, and the island where James Bond concealed himself disguised as a Japanese fisherman.
These various tales from Kyushu are mixed with the author’s contemporary life filled with earthquakes, typhoons, and worries about North Korean missiles.
Looking after his elderly Japanese parents-in-law from week to week provides a rare glimpse into daily life in rural Japan.
Bridge to The Gods: Tales from Kyushu is the best book to come out of Japan in decades. To understand this beautiful yet puzzling country you have to understand Kyushu.

Map of Japan    iv

Map of Kyushu    v

Glossary of Japanese words    vii

Introduction        xiii

One    After the Earthquake    1

Two    Lawyers    13

Three    In search of the kamikaze    25

Four    Origins    45

Five    Kyushu on the palate    55

Six     Yakuza    67

Seven    Tea    85

Eight    Rice    105

Nine    Shinto — the Way of the Gods     119

Ten    Cousin Kyoko’s Orchard    161

Eleven    The Teacher and the Defacing of the Graves    175

Twelve    The Kirishitan Relics    199

Thirteen    Looking for Confucius     213

Fourteen    The Admiral    239

Fifteen    The Earthquake    257

Sixteen    James Bond and the Search for Kissy Suzuki    269

Seventeen    Japan’s Gettysburg    289

Eighteen    The Challenge of Air-Conditioning    303

Nineteen    Preparing For War    311

Twenty    Elections    331

Twenty-one    The Stones of Miyazaki    353

Afterword        375