Pathway to Japanese Literature

Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.

Shinshū KōketsujōAuthor: Kunieda Shiro

Original Title	神州纐纈城
Author	国枝史郎
Genre	Fantasy & Sci-Fi
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	On a hazy spring night in feudal Japan, young samurai Tsuchiya Shōsaburō wanders Kōfu’s moonlit streets, drawn by blossoms and restless curiosity. His path crosses an enigmatic peddler offering a crimson cloth of unearthly brilliance—a fabric whispered to be dyed with human blood. Despite its unsettling allure, Shōsaburō purchases it, unaware this choice binds him to a spectral curse. Visions plague him: blood seeping through war councils, the cloth morphing into a phantom guide luring him to Mount Fuji’s shadowed foothills. There, amid demonic processions and whispered legends of a blood-drenched fortress, he uncovers ties to his own shrouded past—a lineage of vanished parents, forbidden love, and loyalty tested by war. As historical giants like Takeda Shingen loom over his fate, Shōsaburō’s quest intertwines with eerie folklore and mounting peril, where every step risks unraveling a mystery older than the sacred mountain itself. Will the crimson fabric illuminate his destiny or drown it in darkness? The answer lies where human ambition and otherworldly forces collide beneath Fuji’s watchful peak.