Synopsis

During the third year of the Keio era in 1867, the political incident known as Taisei Hokan occurred in which the long-standing Tokugawa shogunate  agreed to transfer power to the Meiji emperor. As a result, various estates of land were split into the Western and Eastern armies that would fight in Boshin War, sparked by the Battle of Toba-Fushimi. During this age of the samurai, when battling seemed an everyday occurrence, Nagaoka Domain’s chief retainer Kawai Tsugunosuke (Yakusho Koji) envisioned a world of peace and sought armed neutrality, belonging to neither side. But when peace negotiations broke down, he chose to engage in gunfire with the Western Army. As a man who loved his wife, thought of his country, and wished for a world without war, he began his final battle…