The Hell of Masters

A snowy night at a villa in Koume, a game of go, a lantern that goes out — and a woman's scream. From that opening Kunieda Shirō's serial of 1925 runs across Edo and out along the Nakasendō: the Drum Thief who robs the great houses for the sake of one perfect hand-drum; the gentleman-burglar Nezumi Kozō Jirokichi; the swordsman Hirate Miki and the drum master Kanze Ginnojō; a post-station singer at Oiwake whose folk song has changed for the worse; and a pirate ship off Chōshi.

Two plots, one city, and the question that gives the book its title: what does mastery cost the master? Unlike Kunieda's unfinished Castle, this one closes — every thread tied, the author bowing out in his own voice. New English translation, complete, with the Oiwake road songs set as verse and the author's slips kept and noted.