Edo, 1855, in the Hill of the Three Hundred district: Japan's isolationist foreign policy has been lifted, and the era of the Bakumatsu has begun. The samurai Ibuya Manjiro, 26 years old, has just begun his career as low-ranking retainer to the minor daimyo Lord Matsudaira. Tezuka Ryoan, 29, a disciple of Dutch medicine, has just been accepted as a...