Intrigue

During a downpour, a generous ronin and his supporting wife are stranded at a country inn. The ronin comes to the attention of a lord who wants to hire him as an instructor for his men, who treat the ronin with disrespect.

Ihei Misawa and his wife Tayo, stranded by rains at a country inn, bring a great deal of happiness to the other residents of the inn by means of Ihei's generosity and good spirit. Ihei is a masterless samurai and fencing expert. Ihei comes to the attention of Lord Shigeaki, who hires him as fencing instructor for Lord Shigeaki's men. But Ihei's expertise causes friction and jealousy in Shigeaki's castle and his future there comes into doubt.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

In the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, in the transition period between the luxurious Genroku Era (1688-1703) and the simple Kyocho Era (1716-1735), the ronin - a samurai without a master - Ihei Misawa (Akira Terao) and his sweet wife Tayo Misawa (Yoshiko Miyazaki) are trapped in a very humble inn with very poor guests. The rain does not stop, and the group is unable to follow their journeys, once the water level of the river is too high to be crossed. The good and decent Ilhei goes to a dojo without the knowledge of Tayo and disputes a fight, and with the collected money, he buys food and sake for the starving costumers, making the people very happy. After the rain, in an incident with some locals, he meets the feudal landlord, Lord Nagai Izuminokami Shigeaki (Shiro Mifune), who invites him to be the chief of art of fencing of his warriors, but the envy and proud prevail and Misawa is dismissed from the aimed job. The quiet Tayo decides to present her optimistic and touching viewpoint of what happened to Ilhei.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil