Eiji Yoshikawa

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers.

Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.

In this first episode, we are introduced to Takezo, what Musashi used to be before he became the man of legend. His beginning are not exactly auspicious. He sides with the Toyotomi at Sekigahara, and as a result finds himself on the losing side of the historic battle. He and his friend Matahachi manage to escape the slaughter although the latter is wounded in his leg. They stumble across the young Akemi who makes her living with her mother Oko by robbing corpses of their armor and anything else they can sell. Oko takes it into her head to seduce Matahachi, which she does first by skillfully sucking the gangrene from his blood, and then just by sucking.

In Part I we see the young would-be swordsman setting out to achieve greatness in war, achieving nothing because fighting on the losing side, & then beginning his long period of wandering & training, with the goal always in mind of his duel with Kojiro. Part II builds toward that great duel on Ganryu Island, with considerable focus on Musashi's planning & forethought as to how to gain an advantage.

The story of Yoshinaka during the tumultuous period of warring related to us in the Heike Monogatari. Close in setting to Kinugasa’s famous Gate of Hell (1953).

In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. As his great love Otsu has succumbed to madness. Musashi then sets off to beat the functionaries of a treacherous clan in an arranged duel. 73 against one. Boastful Kojiro watches, secure in the knowledge that only he is a worthy opponent.

The fifth and final installment with the build up of the epic battle between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamoto Musashi. With all the familiar characters making appearances: Otsu (Musashi's great love), Akemi, Matahachi (his former fellow soldier), old lady Osugi (still doggedly trying to defeat Musashi), and even the return of Priest Takuan (the man responsible for his journey towards enlightenment). But most of all, the boastful, long-haired and long-sworded Sasaki Kojiro.

In the third installment of Yoshikawa's novel Musashi, things continue from the 2nd film at the end of battle, where Miyamoto continues on a mission of learning; with the introduction of his arch-rival Sasaki Kojiro; and lastly the large cast of characters rendezvouses for a fateful finale.

Historical drama.

Jirokichi the Rat is wanted in Edo for robbing the mansions of the rich. While on the run, he falls for Osen, a girl who has been sold to a brothel by her criminal brother, Nikichi. When he goes to find Nikichi, Jirokichi immediately falls for Okino, a poor girl who is also under threat from Nikichi.

The remake of Yoshikawa's novel continues with the second installment in which Takezo, soon to be Miyamoto Musashi, emerges from the Himeji Castle after three years of intense contemplation and philosophical study and starting on his epic quest to complete his skill in the Way.

Who is Shinzo, the man who captivates both men and women…? Official lanterns flutter chaotically through the Great Edo of love and intrigue… A thrilling period crime drama featuring the Demon Magistrate.

A biographical movie about Shinran

From the pen of Yoshikawa Eiji comes this exciting story. The Naruto Strait separates Tokushima from the islands of Awaji and Honshu. On Tokushima the mad lord dreams of conquest and forges a bloody revolt against the Tokugawa shogunate. A mysterious swordsman named Noriyuki Gennojo has crossed Naruto’s waters to uncover the Awa clan’s secrets. He puts his life on the line after finding a testament of Awa’s secrets, written in blood by a dying man. Joining Noriyuki are a female ninja who loves him, and the beautiful daughter of an enemy who’s sworn to kill him. Awa’s defenders willl stop at nothing to prevent the blood-soaked letter from reaching the shogun.

In the sixth and final episode Rentaro Mikuni steals the show as Baiken Shishido, Musashi's nemesis. Mikuni is the nominal villain of the film, but he is a devoted husband and father as well. He tries to kill Musashi only to avenge the death of his brother-in-law. While Baiken (who wields a chain and sickle against Musashi's sword) is a very human character and the emotions that Mikuni displays in his performance are quite believable and engaging

In a desperate crisis, Inamaru is plunged into the dark sea by a strike from Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ryutaro desperately tries to rescue Inamaru. However, it's not just Ieyasu who aims for him and the precious treasure of the Unshaken Banner. Various individuals, good and evil alike, are aiming for the foothills of Mount Fuji where the hidden treasure lies.

A man is brutally murdered and his famed shamisen (a three-stringed musical instrument) called the "Yamabiko" stolen. Prince Kogenta swears to avenge his father-in-law's death and retrieve the family heirloom.

Aboard a ship connecting Kyoto and Osaka, Osan was pickpocketed by a sham blind biwa player. A man who looked like a merchant retrieved the wallet for her. Osan was a woman being sold off for the sake of her yakuza-like brother, Nin'kichi. The man in the guise of a merchant turned out to be the Rat Thief, Jirokichi, the infamous thief of Edo. Due to this chance encounter, the two ended up staying at the same hot spring inn. However, one morning, as Jirokichi was about to leave alone, Osan, with the intuition of a smitten woman, confessed she knew he was the famed Rat Thief.

During the era of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, to strengthen the shogunate, many daimyo clans that did not align with the central power were dismantled. Among them, the ronin from the Higo Kato domain harbored a grudge against Yanagisawa Tajima-no-kami, who was at the forefront of these suppressions. Tajima-no-kami had two sons, Jubei and Matashiro. While Jubei was prudent and thoughtful, Matashiro was of a free-spirited nature. However, both were devoted to their father and were exceptionally skilled in the way of the sword.

Based on the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi (February 2, 1537 – September 18, 1598) a Sengoku period daimyo who unified Japan.

Orphaned when he was not yet ten, Musashi grows up skilled in the martial arts. During the Battle of Sekigahara, he fights on the side of the losing Toyotomi forces, but eludes the enemy as they hunt down the vanquished soldiers. He then spends years wandering the countryside mastering the sword. As his fame spreads throughout the nation, men seek him out to test their skills against him--most notably Sasaki Kojiro who faces Musashi in the ultimate duel at Ganryujima.

The drama centers on Ashikaga Takauji's rise to power, overthrowing the Kamakura shogunate and eventually establishing the Ashikaga shogunate.

Set at the end of the 12th century when several wars for control of Japan disrupted a long era of peace, this tale of "Heike" (another name for the Taira clan) focuses on Taira Kiyomori who fights alongside other members of his clan to at first successfully overcome the Minamoto clan and their bid for power. Battles and intrigue abound, as the puppet Emperor and Buddhist monks take sides in the power struggle. At issue is Kiyomori's parentage, not an unusual problem for the nobility in that era where clandestine liaisons among courtiers and the upper classes were common.

A stop-motion animated TV series based on the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa, featuring puppet art by Kihachirō Kawamoto. This is a historical picture scroll depicting various human characters, breathtaking battles and political struggles from the rise to fall of the Heike clan.

Musashi Miyamoto left his village and ended up fighting in the battle of Sekigahara with his friend Matahachi, but Musashi Miyamoto lost Matahachi. He goes back to the village to inform Matahachi's family about what happened. At the village, he is persecuted by people there. Musashi Miyamoto becomes worn down physically and mentally. At this time, Soho Takuan appears in front of Musashi Miyamoto. He then rebuilds his life with his sword. Musashi begins to travel for warrior training. He meets many masters of the sword and grows as a person.

On September 15, Keicho, a young man, Takezo, whose life was ruined by the war in Sekigahara wandered around like a wild beast. Only his lover Otsu and the pacifist monk Takuan understood Musashi, who escaped from the hands of the Ochimusha hunters and turned against everyone. Then, a crisis loomed over Takezo as he fled into the mountains. At the same time in the village of Jokyoji in Echizen, the sword prodigy Sasaki Kojiro, in his quest for strength had defeated his own master, Tomita Seigen and got out of the village.