California’s Treasure Island

Beheaded on a Japanese beach, the pirate Azukijima Montayū refuses to abandon his purpose. With his head mysteriously restored, he assembles a fleet and crosses the Pacific in pursuit of a treasure said to lie on Tiburón Island.

A British explorer and his young son are already drawn into the same dangerous search. Hidden passages, a living sword, a snake charmer and a one-legged crow turn the island into a maze of adventures. When the adults are trapped, two boys bring courage, ingenuity and unexpected weapons to the rescue.

Kunieda Shirō (1887–1943) combines swordplay and supernatural invention in this complete adventure, first serialized in 1925. The translation preserves all thirty sections and the original songs, with notes on unusual names, printed inconsistencies and the story’s period colonial stereotypes. Its geography and Indigenous legends belong to a fantastical narrative rather than a documentary account. AI-assisted translation.