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| Original Title | 旗本退屈男 |
|---|---|
| Author | 佐々木 味津三 |
| Genre | Historical Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the shadowed lanes behind Edo’s Kanda Myojin Shrine lies a deceptively tranquil mansion, its garden haunted by a buried-alive well rumored to spawn spectral horrors. Shinohara Baifu, a painter of modest talent, and his wife Koyoshi—a former courtesan whose beauty still captivates—have made this cursed place their home, dismissing whispers of ghostly apparitions as mere superstition. But when a pale, smoke-like figure emerges from the winter bamboo, their defiance crumbles into terror. Koyoshi’s fragile resolve shatters as phantom visions and a blood-soaked specter—claiming to be her brother—demand they abandon their love or face eternal wrath. Meanwhile, the enigmatic Saotome Mondonosuke, marked by a legendary scar and a reputation for dispelling boredom through danger, is drawn into their plight. As rivalries from Koyoshi’s past resurface and shadowy schemes unfold, the line between the living and the dead blurs, threatening to entangle all in a web of vengeance, deception, and otherworldly dread. |