The Samurai’s Soul

Osaka, 1590. Aki, the youngest daughter of a prosperous cloth merchant, expects that her father will eventually arrange her marriage. She is unprepared when her greedy uncle proposes adopting her so that he can control the match for his own advantage. Nishioji Tomi, a samurai attached to the Osaka police, is using his official position to investigate a clandestine anti-Christian organisation while concealing his own faith and protecting a mother whose illness could lead to her exclusion from society.

When Tomi arrests Aki’s father for tax evasion, Aki uses the family accounts and her knowledge of the cloth trade to argue for his innocence. Impressed by her ability and determination, Tomi employs her temporarily as his mother’s caregiver, giving Aki a means of delaying her uncle’s plans. Their alliance becomes more dangerous when the investigation uncovers silk smuggling connected to Aki’s family and an enemy from Tomi’s past returns. Both must decide which family secrets can be trusted before commercial intrigue, religious suspicion and private vengeance destroy them.