Yuki no Touge, Tsurugi no Mai

Also known as: 雪の峠・剣の舞, Yuki no touge, Ken no mai, Snowy Ridge, Dance of the Blade

by Hitoshi Iwaaki

1-4. Yuki no Touge In the end of the Sengoku period, the great daimyo family of Satake is driven away from Hitachi-no-kuni to Dewa-no-kuni after the Sekigahara battle. They plan to build a new castle there, but the head of the family, Yoshinobu Satake, listens more to the young vassals' advice than that of the experienced chief vassals'. The experienced vassals oppose and start to plan something to defend their place... 5-9. Tsurugi no Mai It's Sengoku period. Haruna, a daughter of a farmer family, gets herself raped and her family killed by hooligan warriors in the chaos of war. Using the funds she got of the Go stones stolen from the warriors, she joins the dojo of the famous Nobutsuna Kamiizumi to learn kenjutsu in order to get revenge on the warriors. There, she meets Kamiizumi's apprentice Bungorou Hikita, who starts to teach her the art of the sword with the shinai that Kamiizumi has just invented...