Laura Joh Rowland

Laura Joh Rowland is a detective/mystery author best known for her series of historical mystery novels set in the late days of feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 17th century. Her protagonist is Sano Ichirō (佐野 一郎^?).

Rowland is the daughter of Chinese and Korean immigrants. She grew up in Michigan and was educated at the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a B.S. in Microbiology and a Masters in Public Health. She lived through a natural disaster in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed her house in New Orleans, and now lives in New York City.

The novels deal with the experiences of Sano Ichiro, a samurai and minor official who, by the end of the first novel, became the trusted chief investigator for the fifth Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and by the tenth novel, was promoted to a very high office.

Throughout the stories, Sano constantly had to deal with his problems following the code of bushido while serving both justice and his master, the Shogun; and with his wife, Ueda Reiko (上田 麗子^?), who frequently involves herself in Sano's investigations. Sano experiences great pressure as he is faced with death if he doesn't fulfill his obligations to the Shogun as well.

Rowland takes some literary licence with known figures, creating fictionalised versions of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Emperor Higashiyama in "The Samurai's Wife", and Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu. Objective historical details, however, are credibly accurate.

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