The Great Bodhisattva Pass, Book 17: Black Karma and White Karma

Floodwaters tear through the Fuefuki valley while the blind swordsman Tsukue Ryūnosuke lies in hiding. Lady Ogin searches the wreckage, and a dog’s extraordinary rescue draws her into the orbit of Okaku and her traveling performers. Survival opens new connections without erasing the dangers of the past.

Utsugi Hyōma pursues his brother’s killer through Kōfu, where Kamio Shuzen’s household becomes the center of a violent confrontation. Conflicting accounts of fire, abduction, and concealment leave certainty elusive. Ganriki and Shichibei turn toward Kyoto, and the movements of travelers, officials, entertainers, and fugitives carry the story into new surroundings.

This complete English translation preserves all twenty sections of the supplied seventeenth book of Nakazato Kaizan’s epic. Political uncertainty, performance, comedy, cruel social divisions, and private resolve unfold beside one another. Songs and letters remain intact, and the closing view of a foreign warship brings Hyōma’s personal pursuit into contact with a changing Japan.