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Zenta and Matsuzo Samurai Stories |
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| These are samurai stories from 16th century Japan. Two samurai, Zenta and Matsuzo, are unemployed and looking for work. In those days, being an unemployed samurai meant you got into lots of fights and had to defend your honor. Lots of swashbuckling adventure! |
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The Samurai and the Long Nose Devils
The first book in the Zenta and Matsuzo adventure series, this book introduces the two young unemployed samurais (ronin). They encounter one adventure after another in 16th century feudal Japan. Zenta and Matsuzo find work with Nobunaga, a brilliant and unscrupulous warlord. They are appointed as bodyguards to some Portuguese missionaries. These foreigners -- with their firearms, their pale faces, and their religion called Christianity are hated and feared. For Zenta and Matsuzo, they represent more action than they had bargained for.
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White Serpent Castle
Zenta and Matsuzo arrive at a castle shaped like a writhing serpent and said to be haunted. According to legend, the daughter of a former lord had thrown herself into the castle moat and had been changed into a white serpent. From that time on, the serpent's ghost was said to emerge from its resting place whenever a crisis threatened. And now a crisis has come.
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Valley of the Broken Cherry Trees
Zenta and Matsuzo rest at a rural inn, expecting to enjoy the spectacular cherry blossoms nearby. They soon are involved in puzzling mysteries: court intrigue, an invitation to join an assassination, and the unexplained mutilations of the ancient cherry trees.
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Village of the Vampire Cat
Zenta and Matsuzo travel to visit the honored teacher of Zenta's youth, only to find the old warrior and the village terrorized by a force or forces unknown. They must help overcome a large gang of bandits and a madman who has brutally murdered four young women.
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Island of Ogres
The Villagers and fishermen on the Japanese island talked in whispers about the unexplained disappearances of chickens and dogs -- a sure sign that the ogres were demanding a sacrifice. THen Kajiro, a young unemployed samurai, lands on the island. The villagers mistake him for a famous warrior who would save them. But the ogres soon become the least of Kajiro's problems.
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The Coming of the Bear
When a sudden squall dashes their boat onto a shore, Zenta and Matsuzo find themselves on an island inhabited by Ainus, a strange round-eyed people. However, it becomes clear that the two friends are really captives, and they plot their escape to the Japanese settlement on another part of the island.
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Den of the White Fox
Matsuzo and Zenta are warned that the valley they are about to enter is an "unwholesome place after dark." Rumors about a powerful spirit that haunts the area and the more tangible threat of an occupying army fail to dissuade the two, however, and they descend into the valley's depths. The place is rife with intrigue and the samurai establish an uneasy existence among the locals, ever unsure of who is friend and who is foe. As the plot unfolds, the two warriors attempt to solve the mystery of the White Fox, a shadowy figure who might be the leader of a political rebellion or a supernatural spirit.
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Phantom of Tiger Mountain
This adventure story isn't about samurai. In fact, it takes place not in Japan, but in Sung-dynasty China. But this story of young toughs and a phantom has as much danger and adventure as the best samurai stories.
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