"[2][1] "The grueling, century-long battle royal that plunged Japan into “an Era of the Warring States” has finally ended, and the victorious Tokugawa clan rules the freshly-united Land of the Rising Sun.

Yet, despite the onset of peace and prosperity, trouble brews in Yoshiwara, the pleasure quarters of Edo where geisha courtesans count among their clientele numerous bored samurai who are no longer called upon to fight.

Raised by the late legendary Miyamoto Musashi and mysteriously sent to the capital by him, the innocent but lethal Matsunaga Seiichiro bears a secret that is hidden even from himself: he is of the imperial family.

Having barely survived as ruthless purge by Tokugawa minions as an infant thanks to Musashi, the youth is now more than ready to stand his own against forces that stubbornly seek his death.

"[1] “The violence is ultra-modern and the fights are the literary equivalent of a contemporary martial arts film and are played out with cinematic speed and balletic grace.