The Great Bodhisattva Pass, Volume 9: Women and Petty Men

At Ryōgoku’s showgrounds, Doctor Dōan and Yohachi discover a celebrated Indian spearman whose performance conceals a familiar face. Yonetomo’s attempt to earn a living soon leads to another uncomfortable position: serving a precocious boy who has turned mountain gold into a moneylending business.

A lost purse brings an unexpected act of kindness from a woman on Edo’s riverbank. Meanwhile, Okimi joins a traveling company of women acrobats and takes her music and faithful dog Muku to Kōfu. A powerful admirer summons her away just before a quarrel at the entrance turns the showground into a battlefield.

Fire, kidnapping, and false accusations scatter the travelers. Muku’s courage repeatedly changes their fate, while Utsuki Hyōma, still pursuing his own purpose, finds himself drawn into Okimi’s rescue. This complete English translation preserves all thirteen sections of Nakazato Kaizan’s ninth installment, from the showman’s comic exaggerations to the dangerous night beside the Kamanashi River.