The novella Arrowroot is often published in a dual edition with a so-called Secret History that delves into this character’s sadomasochistic relationship with his foe’s wife. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this title character of a nearly thousand-page-long, 1935 novel by Eiji Yoshikawa that climaxes with a battle in which he wields a weapon carved from a boat’s oar.
ANSWER: Miyamoto Musashi [or Miyamoto Musashi; or Musashi Miyamoto; or Musashi; accept The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi]
[10e] This novelist wrote that “Secret History” of Musashi. Edward Seidensticker translated two of this novelist’s titles that are idioms about “water pepper-eating bugs” and “falling snow,” Some Prefer Nettles and The Makioka Sisters.
ANSWER: Jun’ichiro Tanizaki [or Tanizaki Jun’ichiro]
[10m] Perhaps the best-known fictional treatment of feudal Japanese history in the West is this 1975 James Clavell novel about John Blackthorne.
ANSWER: Shōgun
<AP, World Literature>