hyogensha

A reimagination of the myth of Himiko, focused on her divine role as a sun goddess's oracle and her forbidden love for her half-brother Takehiko, which threatens her power and the kingdom's stability.

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.

During the peaceful Tokugawa period, handsome samurai Gonza becomes entangled in a tragic love triangle and a web of deceit while trying to advance his social standing through the tea ceremony.

Expelled from her group for losing her virginity, blind travelling musician Orin endures a life of hardship, abuse, and poverty while wandering the countryside, finding brief companionship with an army deserter, and struggling against a society that marginalises her.

A foreign spy using the Sorge alias is assigned to Tokyo the capital of Japan just prior to the outbreak of World War II and in the midst of the Japanese imperial ambitions in Eastern Asia. The spy becomes acquainted with a sympathetic communist who like he is attached to the ideals of freedom and rule of the masses. Sorge is able to feed the Soviet Union useful information regarding the Axis allies and their movements in Asia and beyond.

Crippled Kabuki player Tonbo is taken in by a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold art, and nurtures him despite persecution and betrayal.

A Japanese soldier deserts his position and travels to a small town on the Sea of Japan to start over. When a young maid falls for him, he talks her into sleeping with an older man for money.