Yagyu Bugei Cho Katame no Ninja

[Machine Translation] This is the 8th installment of the "Jubei Yagyu" series by Jushiro Konoe! A fierce battle to the death ensues between a group of stealthy criminals led by Jubei Yagyu over a stolen new-style repeating firearm! The story is a big action packed volume, with ninjutsu and guns flying wildly all over the screen! The story begins when 2,500 new guns imported from Espania by the Shogunate are stolen by someone. The Shogunate's chief retainer, Matsudaira Izumo, and his chief advisor, Yagyu Munenori, are horrified by this incident and order Munenori's eldest son, Jubei, to search for the stolen guns. The Yagyu family, the Shogun's family advisors, are in reality a secret group of the Shogunate. Jubei gathered together the Yagyu clans from 64 provinces throughout Japan, as recorded in the "Yagyu Bugeicho: Shinobi no Maki," and pledged to unite for the secret mission. One young man named Kogoro of Shingu, who had deceived Jubei into believing that he was a member of the Yagyu clan, sought Jubei's access. Kogoro informed him that he was a vassal of Kishu Kuki Yoshitaka and was trying to prevent Kishu Tokugawa Yoritsune, a benefactor of Yoshitaka, from being implicated in a treasonous plot, and that the root of all evil in the plot to steal the guns and plot against him was Iwakura Gyobu, a castle retainer of the Kishu domain. Jubei is shocked by this story, though suspicious, and attempts to contact Hakumyo, the daughter of Matsudaira Izumo, now the wife of Tokugawa Yoritsune... The film features a splendid cast, including Jubei Konoe, who has an established reputation as Jubei Yagyu, and Hiroki Matsukata, who plays Kogoro, in the fifth father-son collaboration in the series, as well as Chiyonosuke Higashi as Gyobu Iwakura, a Kishu retainer with ambitions to overthrow the Shogunate, and Junko Fuji as Shiromyo, the wife of Yoritsune Tokugawa.

ご存じ近衛十四郎の「柳生十兵衛」シリーズ第8弾! 奪われた新式の連射銃をめぐり巻き起こる、柳生十兵衛率いる隠密集団の壮絶な死闘!! 画面狭しと、忍術と銃が乱れ飛ぶ一大アクション編!! 物語は、幕府がエスパニアより輸入した新式銃2,500挺が何者かによって奪われたことから始まる。この事件に驚愕する老中・松平伊豆守、大目付・柳生宗矩は、宗矩の嫡男・十兵衛にその探索を命じた。将軍家ご指南番の柳生家、その実体は幕府の隠密集団。"柳生武芸帳・忍の巻"に記された全国64州の柳生一門を集めた十兵衛は、密命のための団結を誓う。そんな中、柳生一門の名を騙り、十兵衛に接近を求めた新宮の小五郎という若者がいた。小五郎は、紀州・九鬼嘉隆の家臣で、嘉隆の恩人・紀州の徳川頼恒が謀反の罪に巻き込まれるのを阻止しようとしており、銃を奪い謀反を企む諸悪の根源は紀州藩城代家老・岩倉刑部であると伝えた。疑いながらもその話に衝撃を受けた十兵衛は、松平伊豆守の息女で、今は徳川頼恒の妻となった白妙との接触を試みるが・・・。柳生十兵衛を演じて定評の近衛十四郎と、小五郎に扮する松方弘樹がシリーズ5度目の親子共演を果たすほか、幕府転覆の野望に燃える紀州家家老・岩倉刑部に東千代之介、徳川頼恒の妻・白妙に藤純子が扮するなど豪華キャストが集結。