Part Two—His Master’s Blade, Kyokutei Bakin, Glynne Walley (trans) (Cornell University Press, November 2023)
Kyokutei Bakin’s Nansō Satomi Hakkenden is one of the monuments of Japanese literature. This multigenerational samurai saga was one of the most popular and influential books of the 19th century and has been adapted many times into film, television, fiction, and comics.
His Master’s Blade, the second part of Hakkenden (part one was covered in a review and podcast) begins the story of the eight Dog Warriors created from the mystic union between Princess Fuse and the dog Yatsufusa and born into eight different samurai families in 15th-century Japan. The first is Inuzuka Shino, orphaned descendent of proud warriors. Left with nothing save a magical sword and the bead that marks him as a Dog Warrior, young Shino escapes his evil aunt and uncle and sets out to restore his family name. Unaware of their karmic bond, Shino and the other Dog Warriors are drawn into a world of vendettas and quests, gallants, and rogues, as each strives to learn his true nature and find his place in the eight-man fraternity.
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