Tange Sazen: The Kenun and Konryū Swords

Edo, an autumn night. In a swordsmith-minded dojo behind Nezu Gongen, a sword called Kenun hangs ready, and somewhere in the city its sister blade Konryu waits. Together they are safe; apart they cry out for blood. Into the quarrel over the pair walks the one-eyed, one-armed swordsman Tange Sazen, a man who laughs while he kills.

Hayashi Fubo's serialized novel of 1927-28, the book that made Tange Sazen a legend of Japanese popular fiction, in a new complete English translation by Valentin Saric, with endnotes on the Edo background.