ベイカー寮221B／Baker House 221B

• Naruto_hicho

• Naruto_hicho

• Naruto_hicho

• Naruto_hicho

Fujiwara no Arimura (Eisuke Shinoi) says he will block the passage of Norizuki Gennnojō
Then a man who wears a braided straw hat and drives them away. He is called TSUNEKI Kōzan, former yoriki, high-ranking constable in Edo period. He makes his followers carry wounded Mankichi on a door (***) to his residence and calls HIRAGA Gennai who stays in Osaka. He says it's not a fatal wound and treats him but Chie breaks down from exhaustion so Gennnai has two patients. He tells Kōzan that it is unexpected that she comes to Osaka and Gennnojō is a man of character. Later Ikkaku accompanied by Magobei and Shūma finds a samurai called Kuki falls down. He tells him a man with a braided straw hat took Chie and dies. They are convinced the man is Gennnojō who usually wears a sedge hood as komusō.

• Naruto_hicho

• Naruto_hicho

He, Sanji and his followers finds O-Tsuna in Shigure-dō and threaten her. She says spiteful things to Magobei and Mankichi tries to arrest him again but at last Mankichi is taken as hostage then he and O-Tsuna are bound their hands behind them and they begin playing e-tori (***), a kind of trick-pointing game for money. Then O-tsuna asks them to join her in the game and make them promise to release Mankichi if she wins. O-Tsuna finally wins and points out Sanji's cheating. Then Gennojō appears to take back his companions. A free fight develops but they escape from there and begin running. O-Tsuna feels delighted that she runs with Gennojō.  

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After the residence of Kōga Yoami burnt, TABIKAWA Shūma and Chie go missing. And in Awa, Tokushima domain monopolises the trade of indigo ball and profit by it.  Hachisuka Shigeyoshi, the lord of the domain is ordered to undertake the river improvement by Tokugawa shogunate but it costs money. Also in Satsuma, the lord was ordered to improve a river and spent money a few years and a movement against shogunate occurred. In the domain, Takeya Sanmikyo Fujiwara no Arimura hides himself. Shigeyoshi says it' time to fight against shogun and Arimura agrees it but TAKAGI Ryujiken, superior vassal of the domain tells his lord that it's too early.

HACHISUGA Shigeyoshi (Kazuyuki Aijima, right) talks about "Naruto Hichō" with FUJIWARA no Arimura (Eisuke Shinoi, centre) and TAKAGI Ryūjiken (Ryō Tamura)

Shigeyoshi feels vexed that "Naruto Hichō" was stolen by Yoami and it is not clear where it is now. If it is not found out, Awa domain cannot get the consent of other domains against the shogunate and has to start a riot alone. Shigeyoshi hurries him up to search the petition quickly and calls him country bumpkin. As he is the man who was adopted by a former lord on his deathbed, he doesn't always have good relations with his vassals. However, Yoami still keeps silent about it. In Edo, Mankichi is surprised that Gennojō disappeared. Then he tries to get more information about the fire near the residence and sees Tendō Ikkaku, Ojūya (Sekiya) Magobei and their comrades. He chases Magobei who starts walking alone and finds him enter the house of O-Tsuna where injured Gennojō is sheltered during her absence.


Magobei draws his sword and tries to kill Gennnojō. As being taken by surprise, he barely stops a sword stroke between his bare hands (*). At that moment, Mankichi tries to arrest Magobei but is counterattacked and O-tsuna stops by pointing her pistol at Magobei. After that, Mankichi wonders why O-Tsuna wants to be with Gennojō and she says his existence seems to make her mend her ways (**). She worries that her brother Otokichi and sister O-Miwa do street performance to live. She asks Gennojō to accompany her to Awa but he refuses it and goes out. He remembers Sekiun, Gingoro and Chie on the top of the bridge and sees Otokichi and O-Miwa. 

Toragorō  (Shōzō Uesugi, left) hands Gennnojō the amulet of Chie in exchange for a small sum of money.

Then a drunken man appears and takes their money by force. Gennojō approaches and takes him away. He is Toragorō, father of O-Tsuna, Otokichi and O-Miwa and picked up an amulet that Chie gave to Gennnojō near the residence. It was intentionally dropped by Chie when she escapes from there. Gennojō pays him small sum of money and receives it but they are attacked by Kōga ninjas and Toragorō is cut down by one of them. As he  tries to say something to O-Tsuna, he carries him on his back and hurries to her house.

O-Tsuna (Sumika Nono) grieves her father 's death and is shocked that he is nor her real father

Mankichi talks with Otokichi and O-Miwa and learns that O-Tsuna is their elder sister and makes her meet them. Howevder Gennojō appears with Toragoro who is dying. He tells O-Tsuna that she is not his child and her real father is a samurai who is in western part of japan. In the next moment he dies. Gennojō says that those who connects with him always die and he is a brute as told by his instructor TOGASAKI Sekiun. He leaves there and intends to meet his father Ichigaku. At the entrance of his father's residence, he receives a letter from a girl. It is from Chie and says she goes to Awa. Ichigaku tells his son that there is something only brute can realise. Gennojō shows him Chie’s letter and departs for Awa. Ichigaku tells him not to die.

Gennojō meets his father Ichigaku (Masayuki Shionoya) and departs for Awa

Chie is in shinobi yado (***) with Shūma who says he cannot allow Gennojo who killed Taichi and with another woman ignoring Chie. He tells her that he will take her to Awa and then asks her to marry him. Chie accepts it. Then he calls Sashima, head of the ninjas who could not assassinate Gennojō and kills him. Mankichi also decides to go to Awa for Gennojō and advises O-Tsuna to accompany him if she wants to be with Gennnojō and become honest. O-Tsuna decides to go and leaves Otokichi and O-Miwa to O-Kichi, wife of Mankichi.


Gennojo goes along Nakasendo  (****) and arrives at a post town of Zenkōji  (*****)　crowded with people who visit Zenkoji temple. He walks in front of a girl called O-Yone, daughter of an owner of Kawachō, an inn in Osaka. She contracts tuberculosis and is brought to Zenkoji by MORI Keinosuke, samurai of Awa for recuperation. He also brings some people includes TANDŌ Ikkaku and Magobei. When they are in the room, they hear the sound of shakuhachi and recognise it is Gennojō. Though they run after him, he and O-yone cover themselves with her coat and hides themselves in the lee of the barrel. And O-Tsuna encounters Magobei. 

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• Naruto_hicho

NORIZUKI Gennojō is a komusō, a meidicant Zen priest of the Fuke sect though he is a son of hatamoto, direct vassal of shogun in reality. In Edo, he meets a man called Araki, vassal of MATSYDATIRA Sakyōnosuke、Kyoto Shoshidai who governs Kyoto under Tokugawa shogunate. He orders him to search Yoami in Awa (current Tokushima) and receives money. But Mikaeri O-Tsuna, a cut-purse sees it and plans to steal it. That night she waits for him near a bridge but Gennojo fights SEKIYA Magobei, a street-murder with swords. Then O-Tsuna throws a stone into a river and the noise makes him away. She steals Gennojo's money but he is aware of it  and says, "I pretend I didn't see it".


Gennojō is a fiance of Chie, daughter of Kōga Yoami, a Kōga-ryu ninja who is the head of the Koga family. Years ago, he decided to travel to perfect his skill in swordsmanship with his instructor TOGASAKI Sekiun and was given an amulet by Chie. And in Kyoto, an aristocrat attempted to overthrow shogunate and it was found out and he was arrested by Kyoto Shoshidai (Hōreki no hen). The aristocrat hid himself in Awa and Sakyonosuke ordered Yoami to search a petition with blood sealed of overthrowing shogunate called "Naruto Hichō". Yoami departed for Awa but visited a O-Tsuna and her mother O-Sai on his way. He gave O-Tsuna some money but Toragorō, father of O-tsuna who was a rude man took away it.


Gennojō learned Sekiun's swordsmanship perfectly. Then Sekiun told him to surpass himself, to kill him in short. He then cut down him and Sekiun fell down on the ground. He says,
 "the swordsmanship is a means of killing people and if you investigate the swordsmanship thoroughly, he will be a brute."
And then he died. After that Gennojō becomes got disheartened but was told by a prostitute with him that a brute could have human mind by chanting the name of Buddha.


O-Tsuna is chased by Mankichi, hired thief-cather who knows about Gennojō well and his follower Gingorō but makes her getaway. Then she sees Magobei and gets falsely accused by him. She tells him to visit a house in Hongō Tsumagoi, an area of Edo. Gennojō is persuaded to meet his father who takes ill and Chie by Mankichi and Gingorō at an eating house managed by Mankichi's wife. They grieve that Gennnojo degraded himself. And in the residence of Yoami, Chie is sick of waiting for her father and Gennnojō but is admonished by TABIKAWA Shūma, leading disciple of Yoami. He has a secret design in reality.


O-Tsuna's family is very poor and her younger sister and brother do street performance to earn their keep. She knows that Toragorō will sell her to Yoshiwara, a red light district for money and that's why she keeps a distance from her family. She gives them the money she stole from Gennojō and tells them that she is a maid of a big residence. And she remembers that in her childhood, she stole a merchant's purse at an exhibition of medicines by HIRAGA Gennai. Then a boy of a samurai family appeared and said to her "I pretend I didn't see it" to protect her. She thinks that the boy was possibly Gennojō himself. Then she goes to Hongō and is squeezed by Magobei who waits for her. But she holds a pistol and sends him away.
    

Gennnojō visits Chie with Gingoro but is refused to see her by Shuma who says she has depression. Then Gennojō asks him to hand her the amulet. Chie feels that somebody visits the residence but Shūma tells such a lie that it was Gennpjō but he said that he didn't want to see her anymore. Shūma attempts to marry her and manage the Kōga family. He orders his follower Taichi to keep a lookout for him. Gennojō and Gingorō who leave the residence are attacked by the ninjas of Kōga-ryū. Though they cut their way, the life of Gennojo is threatened by the samurais of Awa also and O-Tsuna suports him with her pistol.


In Awa, Yoami is put in a jail. The Koga family goes into decline.

The images are from the video of "Naruto Hichō".

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