Whirling Between Life and Death

A fortune-teller gives Miyakawa Chinoo an unsettling prophecy: go into the mountains, and something awaits him. A rival swordsman seems to know what that something is—and is prepared to kill for it. Meanwhile, in Edo, a merchant’s household and a ruthless collector become caught in the pursuit of a strange treasure.

Chinoo’s journey leads into the forests of Hida and toward two isolated communities whose rivalry has become a matter of life and death. A misleading guide, an unexpected attack, and a kidnapped young woman draw the scholar into a conflict far larger than the family visit he intended.

Kunieda Shirō combines sword fights, secretive religious legends, dazzling landscapes, and a narrator who repeatedly turns aside to examine his characters’ motives. Beneath the adventure run competing impulses: greed and generosity, suspicion and trust, fear and the desire for a different life.