Yagyu Moonshadow Chronicles

by Eiji Yoshikawa

First published 1947

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2.5(1)

During the shogunate of Tokugawa Iemitsu, Yagyū Munenori serves both as a master of the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū and as an official responsible for controlling powerful lords. His public authority attracts resentment, while his household is divided by the different temperaments and ambitions of his sons, including the formidable swordsman Jūbei Mitsuyoshi.

The appearance of a mysterious woman intensifies tensions already present within the family and the political order around it. Yoshikawa uses the Yagyū household to explore the contradiction between the ideal of the life-preserving sword and the coercive duties of men who serve the early Tokugawa state.