Guided Reading Essay: The Missing Blade

Read the story of The Missing Blade then answer then complete the following essay assignment under the Quiz section. The 7th installment of Justin Hagen's Jitsuroku series, The Missing Blade concludes our Pulp Fiction style revenge saga that intertwines characters from Kazuma's Revenge, Chobei of Bandzui and The Loves of Gompachi and Komurasaki with a final showdown of bloody revenge and tragedy.  When a sword owned by Honda Dainaiki is stolen, a roller coaster of violence, murder and betrayal ensues that leads to the most epic tale of revenge we have seen thus far in our series. Vendettas, honor, loyalty, murder and betrayal, key components of a classic and yet little known Japanese literary genre known as jitsuroku. The word “jitsuroku” translates as “memoir” and was a genre of literature in feudal Japan that were generally exaggerated stories of political scandals and revenge. These stories were largely based on true events, however through oral transmission and embellishment, these stories would soon intertwine fact and fiction together to the point that trying to decipher between the two would become quite difficult. The result is that epic tales of revenge would soon become transmitted and popularized throughout Feudal Japan. The story of The Missing Blade is one that ends in tragedy and violence. This work is a republishing of a segment from A.B. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan which is now out of print and in the public domain.