On the main street of the Yoshiwara pleasure district the top courtesan Yatsuhashi makes a luxurious procession through the fully blooming cherry trees. Miraculously, she happens to smile at Jirozaemon, a country merchant in the crowd. Who would have ever imagined that this momentary encounter could be the cause of fatal mass murder? A love triangle forces the courtesan to reject her best customer in the middle of a banquet – the most dishonourable humiliation of all. Jirozaemon seizes the haunted sword Kagotsurube which inevitably invites bloodshed once it is drawn.

Nakamura Kanzaburo
Bando Tamasaburo
Kataoka Nizaemon