Synopsis: Book of the Dead

The story is set in the mid-eighth century, when the capital of Heijo-kyo flourished. One day, at dusk on the spring equinox, the daughter of the Fujiwara family, who was raised deep within the mansion to serve the local deity, sees a solemn figure among the peaks of Mt. Nijo and vows to copy a thousand sutras. A year later, having finished writing a thousand copies, she disappears from the mansion and heads west alone. She arrives at the foot of Mt. Nijo, a temple where women are not allowed. To atone for her crime of breaking the barrier, she is taken into a hermitage in the temple, where an old woman tells her the story of Shigatsuhiko and Mimimen Toji, who were beheaded for treason fifty years ago. The first work since winning the Grand Prize in the Manga Division of the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival, "Five-Colored Boat" (original story by Tsuhara Yasumi)! Forty years after first reading this masterpiece novel by Orikuchi Shinobu, who established Japanese folklore studies, it has finally been made into a manga. A soulful story that takes you back to ancient times.