Japan 1603. After his victory in the battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu is named shogun by the emperor. Its mandate will be a period of political turmoil full of intrigue, rivalry and betrayal, but will manage to establish a peace that will last more than two hundred years. The samurai, still valued for their skill in the use of the sword, occupy a social position superior to that of the peasants and merchants. Without battles to fight, however, these professional warriors struggle to preserve their honor and sense of existence. In this context, the occasional swings with the sword, motivated by conspiracies and enmities, contrast with their efforts to incorporate themselves into daily life and their family environment. Fujisawa presents in this book a distant culture for us, but full of life and with characters with which the current readers will feel identified thanks to a detailed and realistic recreation of the Japanese feudal world. Evocatively, with emotion and tenderness, this delightful selection of stories opens a door to life in Japan of the Edo period.