Isshin Tasuke, a friend of Ōkubo Hikozōemon, the esteemed public arbitrator of the realm, saved the maid Onatsu from punishment after she accidentally broke a plate gifted by Lord Ieyasu. Tired of the strict samurai service, Tasuke moved to the Genbei tenements and opened a fish shop. This...
Set in the 1860s, the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Fireflies focuses on Tose (Awashima Chikage), the mistress of the Teradaya, a small inn in the Kyoto suburb of Fushimi. She does not have an easy life. Her husband, Isuke (Ban Junzaburo), is a wastrel who fancies himself a kabuki...
Asakichi beats a ganster, Sada, in a physical fight, leading to recognition by Sada's clan boss. When Kotoito, the geisha Asakichi is in love with, is kidnapped by a rival clan and sold to a a house of pleasure, Asakichi and Sada set out to rescue her.
After ten years of study in the US, Nonomura Kensuke returns to Japan to be an English teacher at a local high school. Kensuke's nontraditional teaching style stirs up the school, but the students gradually accept him.
Ginpei, in an act of desperation to get money for his gravely ill mother, was laughed at and ended up fighting with the companions of the castle patrol Matsunomura Genba, including Onimatsu. He was later reconciled by the family elder Ishikawa Yoriimo, who also gave him some money. Returning home...
Former boxer Goro Kawasaki was attacked by the organizer of the fights for knocking out his opponent because he could not stand the fight. He is being released from prison, where he was imprisoned on charges of causing bodily harm. He meets his younger brother Fumio, who is going to become a boxer...
In the town of Izu known for its hot springs, Den Shichi from Kuromon Town sets off for a healing trip with his companion, a bamboo craftsman with a nose like a lion's snout, at a time when the town is under a tight security network due to a nearby gunpowder depot explosion. Staying at Tsuruya, Den...