Summary
In the lantern-hazed labyrinth of Edo’s Asakusa, young Bangorô—heir to the iron-willed Shibukawa Hanryuken—erupts into legend when he rescues the sword-poet Jinpachi and his moon-pale daughter from Kurosaki Tenzen’s perfidious custody beneath the eaves of Kanon Temple. A single, seismic throw of judo silkens the night air; yet the rescue detonates a chain-reaction of scandal when Bangorô, disgusted by Sengo Tayu’s illicit victory over the bruised colossus Yotsuguruma, hurls the cheating tayū across the dohyō like a rag-stitched comet. Rumors—black as lacquer, light as ash—swarm the pleasure quarters: our hero is branded a thug, exiled from his father’s tatami kingdom. Reduced to ronin-without-a-kimono, he mediates a blood-feud between two hulking ōzeki whose egos eclipse the moon, only to be summoned by the hawk-eyed Lord of Arima to slaughter a monstrous spider whose silk threads are said to bind the fate of every soul in the shogunate. Thus Bangorô steps off the map of honor and into a chiaroscuro myth where judo is religion, betrayal is currency, and the next throw might decide whether the world ends in silk or in fire.
Synopsis
Bangoro, the son of the judo instructor Shibukawa Hanryuken, saves Jinpachi and his daughter from Kurosaki Tenzen, who is holding them under a false pretext around the precincts of the Kanon Temple in Asakusa. He also punishes Sengo Tayu who has beaten Yotsuguruma in a sumo wrestling match by using a forbidden technique. However, Tenzen spreads false rumors about Bangoro, who is expelled by his judo school for abusing his fighting strength. One day, after Bangoro arbitrates a quarrel between two sumo wrestlers of the second highest rank, he is ordered by the Lord of Arima to kill an enormous spider. Where does this lead Bangoro?
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