1567: Kyonosuke, son of a farmer, dreams about becoming a samurai. And he gets the chance due to his physical resemblance to Lord Yasutaka. Kyonosuke left the village and become one of the three "shadow" (Kagemusha) of Yasutaka. After a hard training to learnt how to fight and impersonate the lord, Kyonosuke is sent on the battlefield.

The story begins in 1629 Shizuoka during Tokugawa Tadanaga's rule. The daimyo staged a tournament where the participants fought with real steel Japanese swords rather than bokken, against his vassals' strong objection. The story revolves around the first match between the one-armed swordsman Fujiki Gennosuke and the blind samurai Irako Seigen and deals with the circumstances that led the two to participate in Tokugawa's tournament. (Source: Wikipedia)

This manga features violent stories of passion and swordsmanship, set in the Kan'ei era (1624-1643). It opens with a match between two damaged swordsmen. Irako is blind, and his opponent, Fujiki, is missing an arm. It has been decreed that their match will be fought with metal swords, instead of wooden, so one of these men will die. The story that led them to this final match, and gave them their handicaps, involves ambition, the selection of the heir for a dojo, and the passion of two women-- one the dojo master's daughter, and the other his lover.