THE SECRET SCROLLS OF NARUTO, Vol. I by Eiji Yoshikawa will be the 39th book in the Castalia Library subscription. It will be a limited edition of 650/75 (Oct-Dec 2026) and contains the first three books: The Kamigata Scroll, The Edo Scroll, and The Kiso Scroll. It will be followed in the subscription by the second volume, which will contain the final three scrolls. This is the first English translation of one of the most popular novels ever published in Japan, where it is so famous that it has been made into 7 different films and 4 different television series and also inspired the manga series that sold more than 150 million copies.
Serialized in 1926–27, Eiji Yoshikawa, who is considered to be the Japanese Dumas, created the modern Japanese adventure novel with his publication of Naruto Hichō. Set in the 1760s, it follows the swordsman-monk Norizuki Gennojō as he crosses into the sealed domain of Awa to uncover a conspiracy against the Tokugawa shogunate, armed with nothing but his blade and the memory of a spy who vanished on a mission to the hidden province ten years before. At his side are two women, a pickpocket with a genius for survival, and the spy’s daughter in love with a man who is forbidden to love her back.
KAMIGATA - EDO - KISO
The Kamigata Scroll opens the tale in the canals of Osaka, where two men on a secret mission check into a canal-side guardhouse unaware that a woman is listening from the shadows. The Edo Scroll shifts the action to Tokugawa-era Tokyo and a midnight ambush at Sensō-ji temple. The Kiso Scroll follows the pursuit into the mountain roads of central Japan, where the distance between hunter and hunted narrows to the width of a sword.
As you can see from the image above, we have also made the two volumes of THE SECRET SCROLLS OF NARUTO in hardcover editions available on Amazon, but the leatherbound Library and Libraria editions will be a spectacular set that will make for a genuinely historic collector’s edition.
And since we’re on the subject of translations, this is as good a time as any to announce that all Library, Libraria, History, Cathedra, and Chateau leather book subscribers will receive a free basic subscription to Castalia Unlimited when it launches next month, which will entitle them to a number of free ebook downloads every month. Those subscribers who were also paying subscribers to this site prior to this announcement will have their subscriptions promoted to the premium level if they maintain them.
EXCERPT
Along the dusty highway, a procession of such color and splendor as to leave the eye nowhere to rest came sweeping from the Sanjō gate toward Ōtsu. Pink parasols and iris-painted parasols, held aloft against the sun by twenty-two or twenty-three beauties whose bright-patterned sleeves and wisteria hems, scarlet petticoats and flower-blue leggings, lacquered clogs and red-corded sandals fluttered and glinted beneath the silk. In their midst rode a single palanquin, and in the palanquin a woman of remarkable beauty.
One might have mistaken the company for the household of some great lord’s pleasure outing, but the chatter that never ceased among the attendants, the scraps of song and mouth-shamisen they scattered along the road without the slightest restraint, made clear enough that these were not persons of gentle birth. And yet the travelers, the muleteers, the porters on the highway stood rooted and staring, struck dumb by the sheer extravagance of the cavalcade.
“What on earth is that?”
The speculation ran wild. Some rich patron, surely, taking a party of Kyoto geisha to cool themselves at Lake Biwa. No, no, rich patrons since time immemorial had been men, and the figure in the palanquin was plainly a woman. A woman indeed, and a stunning beauty at that. A wealthy merchant’s wife, then? Don’t be ridiculous, no sheltered daughter of a good house would parade herself this way in broad daylight. Quite so, quite so. Then what was it? Nobody had the faintest idea.
The puzzlement and the staring only raised the procession’s spirits higher. Before long they reached the foot of the Ōsaka slope, and at the shop front of the Hashirii teahouse the party set down the palanquin. The company scattered like a cloud of butterflies into and around the establishment.
“Here we are, my lady, here we are.”
The women who bent to peer into the palanquin were Gion-district waitresses by the look of them, women of a certain age who knew how to dress without a false note.
“This is the last stop before the Oiwake junction, the famous Hashirii teahouse where the spring water comes bubbling up. Much as we hate to part, the escort ends here.”
“Already? It feels as though we have barely set out.”
“If it were possible, we would follow you all the way to Edo. But that would only be a burden on you, my lady.”
“It would, wouldn’t it. If you were all Kyoto dolls I could pack you in my trunk, but since you are rice-eating creatures with appetites to match…”
“Oh! What a wicked thing to say.”
“Well then, let us sit for a moment.”
“Yes, yes. Please take your time with your preparations.”
The young male entertainers and waitresses bustled to take down her footwear from the palanquin roof and set it in place; from the other side came cries of “Your fan, my lady, you’ve dropped your fan!” and “Your hem, your hem, the dust!” and they ushered her into the parlor beneath the wisteria trellis with a solicitude that would not let her touch the ground.
There the dancing girls crowded about her, fanning, wringing out hand-towels cooled in the spring water, women attending upon a woman with a devotion that was really quite considerable.
“Enough, enough. However much breeze you give me, I cannot carry it to Edo as a souvenir. Go on, all of you, and rest a while yourselves.”
“Very well then, we shall take a moment here too.”
“Good. Now here is your reward for escorting me this far. Share it out and enjoy yourselves.” She drew a fistful of gold and silver from her sash and scattered it among the dancing girls. The entertainers and waitresses scrambled for the coins with shrieks of delight. No wonder this woman commanded such devotion, even from her own sex.
And yet this “young lady” had no pretensions of playing the female Kibun. There was nothing forced or vulgar in her generosity. She simply found it amusing, it seemed, to be wrapped in an atmosphere of color and gaiety for no particular reason at all.
Then, as if something had occurred to her, she beckoned to one of the teahouse girls. “Miss. I believe I see Nada barrels over there. Would you bring me a flask? No, I don’t need anything special to eat. Edamame, or a bit of fresh ginger if you have it.”
Meanwhile the dancing girls had dragged stools under the wisteria trellis, and with their silver hairpins and flower-combs glinting they settled into a game of Dutch cards.
The mysterious young lady was Otsuna. Otsuna of the Backward Glance, on her way home to Edo. The three hundred ryō she had lifted at Tennōji and the winnings she had taken unexpectedly at Dutch cards, some seven hundred ryō in all, she had squandered across Fushimi and Kyoto in a style of amusement that would have done credit to any man. She had seen the Kamigata. She had shed the weight of all that gold. And now, refreshed and lightened, she was heading home.
Production update: we’re currently binding METAPHYSICS. Once that’s done, it and the three other books we’ve finished since the last shipment will be shipped to the warehouse and then out to the subscribers. Below is an actual photo of the most recently finished book: QUO VADIS.
