The Later Narihira Bunji

The morning after Narihira Bunji’s night raid on a corrupt fencing master’s hall, an innocent man confesses to his crime. Bunji stops the execution procession in the middle of Edo Bridge and gives himself up. A senior councillor quietly keeps the death warrant from being sealed, and Bunji is exiled to Miyake Island, where he calms a convicts’ revolt and becomes their overseer.

Pardoned at last, he sets out with his wife O-Machi to avenge her murdered father. Bandits carry her off on the Mikuni Pass, and she survives a winter in a bear’s den, sheltered by the mother bear. Pirates lure Bunji out to sea, and a storm casts him away on an uninhabited island where parrots are his only company. Told by Enchō’s disciple San’yūtei Enkitsu from his master’s outline, this sequel to Narihira Bunji runs from courtroom to castaway to a vendetta under the cherry blossoms of Mukōjima. Complete and unabridged in all forty-five original chapters, with concise notes and a documented source record.

A New English Translation in the series Japanese Classics in English Translation.