Kinnosuke Nakamura

Ryutaro Otomo

Denjirō Ōkōchi

Yumiko Hasegawa

Eiko Maruyama

As Part I opens, Jubei (Denjiro Okochi), the best of sea skippers, is unable to overcome the stormy seas of Luzon. All hands on board the Kannonmaru were lost except for Shinkei, who alone made his way to land & eventually home to inform his grandson Jiromaru (Kinnosuke Nakamura) that his father Jubei met with disaster.  Young Jiromaru tells his grandfather that he doesn't want to be a skipper like his father, but wants to go to Kyoto and become a samurai…

Ichi is a blind entertainer that travels the countryside with her traditional Japanese guitar and walking stick. She’s in search for the kind man that brought her up as a child, but because of her beauty she encounters problems every step of the way. Fortunately for Ichi, she is also a gifted swordswoman and carries a lethal blade within her walking stick.

Wishing to find peace, Zatoichi travels to his old village but only finds trouble when he ends up in a love triangle and finds old scores have followed him home.

After arriving in the town of Shimonita, Ichi finds that a price has been put on his head by a local yakuza boss. He's drawn into a trap, but after hearing of the slaying of a former love, Ichi furiously fights his way through the entire clan to face the killer, a hired ronin.

Zatoichi is sworn to protect the life of a young girl and without any real allies finds himself in the middle of a bloody turf war.

In this film, Hibari plays a dual role as brother and sister. The story involves a journey to Hanagasa for an incognito Lord (Kotaro Satomi) to overthrow an attempted usurpation of his domain, while being harassed by vassals of the usurper (Kensaku Hara).  There's also a mysterious ronin played by Jushiro Konoe.  The songs are seamlessly woven into the narrative and don't overwhelm the action.  While the plot is derivative it is good example of its type and quite enjoyable.  Note that there are some flashback sequences in black and white.

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.

The fate of Tokugawa’s world hangs in the balance as Yagyu Jubei is sent on a mission to discover what happened to 10 of the shogun’s spies that never returned. Matsukata Hiroki, one of the last surviving members of the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema proves that he has not lost a step as he portrays an older and wiser Yagyu Jubei in a movie that brings the best of samurai filmmaking into the 21st century. Summoned from semi-retirement by Shogun Iemitsu, Jubei is asked to take to the road and investigate a clan rumored to be preparing explosives for a rebellion. With help from a beautiful female ninja they head into the Shirakawa domain where the fighting skills of both are tested time and again as they strive to destroy a conspiracy that could bring a new Warring States Era. In the 1960's Yagyu Jubei was the signature role of the great Konoe Jushiro, father of Matsukata Hiroki.  This brings the character full circle.

Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.