Pathway to Japanese Literature

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

Dog God DaughterAuthor: Kunieda Shiro

Original Title	犬神娘
Author	国枝史郎
Genre	Popular Fiction
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	In the turbulent final years of Japan’s Edo period, a revered priest becomes the target of a ruthless shogunate crackdown. Gesshō, a gentle yet resolute loyalist monk, flees Kyoto under the protection of devoted allies—including the fiery Saigō Kichinosuke and his hotheaded comrade Shunsai Arimura. Disguised as a noblewoman, Gesshō navigates perilous checkpoints and shadowy conspiracies, his survival hinging on cunning stratagems and the loyalty of sworn brothers. Yet danger takes an uncanny turn when a mysterious woman emerges—Otsuna, her beauty as sharp as her motives. Whispers of her ties to the Dog God, a supernatural force of vengeance, intertwine with her unsettling fascination with Gesshō’s ethereal grace. As constables close in and betrayals simmer, the priest’s allies grapple with a harrowing truth: salvation may require confronting not just political enemies, but ancient, otherworldly forces. Amid moonlit escapes and blood-soaked confrontations, Gesshō’s fate becomes a fragile thread woven into Japan’s tumultuous rebirth—a journey where devotion, treachery, and divine wrath collide beneath a fading samurai sky.