[1] Thirteen-year-old Jiro finds himself caught up in the political events of late eighteenth-century Osaka, Japan when he accompanies his father, Hanji, to deliver a puppet to the Hanaza theater.

Determined not to be a burden on his family during the current famine, Jiro runs away to the theater, where he becomes an apprentice.

He begins his career by opening curtains and memorizing scripts and eventually graduates to a role as a “foot operator.” Along the way, he is helped by an older boy, Yoshida’s son, Kinshi, who does not seem able to please his father.

One evening, Saburo, the mysterious bandit who steals from the rich to help the poor, leaves a notice on the door of the theater demanding a special performance of the current play, “The Thief of the Tokaido.” Jiro later finds the sword that Saburo used for the performance day special on the second floor of the storage room, a shed-like room with walls lined with puppets which is off-limits.

He asks the theater’s reciter, Okada, for advice on whether to give the sword to Kinshi as an opportunity to talk to Saburo, who was believed to be Yoshida.