The year is 1179. It's autumn, and the scent of pine is in the clean, still air. The dried rice grains have been brought in from the fields, the fields are bare soil, and smoke rises from little fires of straw in the distance. Soon, the kami of the oceans, fields, and rocks will return. And you, for whatever or your own reasons, have chosen to travel to or through Kai province, home of the proud Minamoto samurai Takeda clan. Famed for its patience and forbearance, and for its fine horses and horsemen, the perhaps the finest in all of Nippon.
Perhaps you have chosen to make a pilgrimage to Kai's sacred Mount Fuji, the heart of Nippon, which every person hopes to see once in his or her lifetime. Or perhaps you are on some assignment from your clan. Perhaps you're on a sword quest, wandering Nippon in search of challenge, fame, and glory. Or perhaps you've been driven from your clan, for some crime or notorious misdeed. But what is certain is that you are on your own, on the open road to a land you do not know, where you know no one, and no one knows you. A stranger in a land of turmoil and tension. Where things are not always as they appear to be. A land where strangers are not always welcome.
