Gamblers

Baron Yoshimoto, well known for "Juukyouden", personally researched the world of gamblers and wrote this monumental collection of gambling short stories. The protagonist of the first story, "Kurikara Monmon", Togashi Buntaro, is a young man who came to Tokyo from a mountain village in the Tohoku region, relying on his late father's war comrades. Buntaro comes to stay at the home of Yamada Jinjiro, a member of the Yamajin family, a loan shark in Asakusa. The year is 1924, and it is the 17th of the first month, right at the height of the Asakusa Sansha Festival. Buntaro's father was a genuine matagi (hunter), and when he returned to Japan after serving in Manchuria during the Pacific War, he learned Shorinji Kempo from a Chinese monk. It is said that his skills reached the level of a master. He teaches these secret techniques to his only son, Buntaro. Buntaro, who understands the essence of Shorinji Kempo, never uses his physical strength even after joining a yakuza family, and gradually finds himself at odds with the Yamajin family, who lack the spirit of a gambler...