Issai Chozanshi is the pen name of Niwa Jurozaemon Tadaaki, an eighteenth-century swordsman and intellectual. His writings weave together ideas drawn from Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Taoism, and his treatises on the way of the sword and the martial arts demonstrate a remarkable synthesis of these philosophical traditions.

Sean Michael Wilson is a comic book writer from Scotland, living in Japan. He has had many books published with a variety of US, UK, and Japanese publishers, such as The Book of Five Rings, and edited the critically acclaimed AX: alternative manga (Publishers Weekly’s “Best Books of 2010” in comics). In 2016, his book Lafcadio Hearn’s “The Faceless Ghost” and Other Macabre Tales from Japan was nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award. And in 2017, his book Secrets of the Ninja won an International Manga Award from the Japanese Government.

William Scott Wilson is the foremost translator into English of traditional Japanese texts on samurai culture. He received BA degrees from Dartmouth College and the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, and an MA in Japanese literary studies from the University of Washington. His best-selling books include The Book of Five Rings, The Unfettered Mind, and The Lone Samurai, a biography of Miyamoto Musashi.

Michiru Morikawa is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist and winner of the 2005 International Manga and Anime Award. With Sean Michael Wilson, she has created two graphic novels: Buskers and Yakuza Moon.