Shugoro Yamamoto

A moving Edo-period story by Shugoro Yamamoto about poverty, compassion, family, and the possibility of beginning life again.Okatsu, a widowed mother, lives with her five children in a poor tenement near the Tatekawa River. The entire family works...

Takeshirō Hondō rises from a low-ranking foot-soldier family to become assistant to a powerful chief retainer.He falls in love with the retainer’s daughter, Koiso, and boldly asks her to reject another marriage proposal.At the same time, Takeshirō...

Gorozaemon Kamobe proudly chooses the celebrated Keinosuke Uchida as husband for his only daughter.Keinosuke is reputed to be a master swordsman and brilliant scholar. Yet after entering the family with only one suit of armor and one spear, he...

A mysterious young ronin calling himself Umanosuke Kusakari enters Kishu and announces that he intends to fight one thousand martial matches.Using only a wooden sword, he defeats one renowned warrior after another. When the skilled samurai Saburobei...

Magoshichi Kakinoki is an enormous but extraordinarily slow and easygoing samurai.His closest friend, Zundoemon Ishihara, insists that beneath Magoshichi’s vague expression lies the potential for greatness.During his first battle, Magoshichi cannot...

After his hot temper ruins his assignment in Edo, samurai Yazawa Shinichirō returns to Okayama.Known for his quick temper and frequent quarrels, Shinichirō is instructed by his uncle, senior inspector Yazawa Jūbei, to practice patience. Whenever rain...

Heikuro Soga is a loyal retainer of Oda Nobunaga and a formidable master of the spear.Nobunaga recognizes Heikuro’s feelings for the orphaned attendant Wakana and offers to arrange their marriage. But Heikuro has heard rumors that Wakana is Nobunaga’s...

Before dawn, a young samurai dressed for a duel arrives too early at a frozen training field.Unable to endure the cold, he approaches a small fire beneath a bridge. There he meets an elderly couple known in the castle town as the “beggar husband and...

Koyata Miyabe is known throughout the Okazaki domain as a coward.Challenged by a powerful swordsman, he wins an extraordinary duel by refusing to fight in the expected manner. His unusual victory attracts the attention of his lord, who chooses him for...

Two years after fighting for Ishida Mitsunari at Sekigahara, Yanosuke secretly returns to his village.The neighbors who once promised to protect his family abandoned his elderly mother after the defeat. Her fields and possessions were taken, and she...