藤沢周平『用心棒日月抄』ダイジェスト、英語対訳 ４
藤沢周平『用心棒日月抄』ダイジェスト、英語対訳 ４
４ ３－２ 孤剣 - 用心棒日月抄（1980年）
『別冊小説新潮』1978年秋季号から『小説新潮』1980年3月号まで断続的に掲載。1980年新潮社刊。1984年新潮文庫。
間宮派のクーデターによって藩政に落ち着きが戻るかと思われたが、旧大富家老派の連判状を大富丹後の甥・大富静馬が持ち出したことによって、旧大富家老派の残存勢力への対応が不十分になってしまった。そこで間宮中老は、青江又八郎に大富静馬を追わせ連判状を取り戻すように命令を下した。藩の取り潰し材料として連判状を狙う公儀隠密との三つ巴の争いの中で、使命を公にすることもできず、青江は再び脱藩した形を取り、江戸に向かう。
青江は江戸では、旧知の口入屋の相模屋吉蔵の周旋によって再び用心棒稼業に就くことになる。また、大富静馬と連判状の探索の使命については、佐知とその配下の嗅足組の協力によって進めていく。佐知は、前作の最終話で女刺客として登場したが、実は藩の隠密組織である嗅足組の江戸屋敷の頭目であった。
前作の赤穂浪士事件に代わり、本作から最終作の『凶刃』まで青江と佐知の交情が作品を通しての主題の一つとなっている。
Fujisawa Shuhei "Yojimbo Nichigetsusho（A Daily/ Monthly Record of A Bodyguard）” A Digest, Japanese-English translation ４
4 3-2 “A Sole Sword- Yojimbo Nichigetsusho（A Daily/ Monthly Record of A Bodyguard）” (1980)
Published intermittently from the autumn 1978 issue of "Bessatsu Novel Shincho" to the March 1980 issue of "Shousetsu Shincho". Published by Shinchosha in 1980. 1984 Shincho Bunko.
It was thought that the Mamiya faction's coup d'état would restore calmness to the administration of the domain, but due to Shizuma OTOMI, the nephew of Tango OTOMI, taking out the jointly sealed covenant of the former Otomi Karo faction, the response to the remaining forces of the former Otomi Karo faction was inadequate. has become Therefore, Churo Mamiya ordered Matahachiro Aoe to pursue Shizuma Otomi and retrieve the joint letter. In the middle of a three-way battle with the public sect, which is aiming for a joint letter to crush the clan, Aoe cannot make his mission public, and leaves the clan again and heads for Edo.
In Edo, Aoe was once again employed as a bodyguard through the good offices of Kichizo Sagamiya, an old acquaintance of an employment agency. In addition, the mission to search for Shizuma Otomi and a jointly sealed covenant will be carried out with the cooperation of Sachi and his subordinates, the Rhinsoku-gumi. Sachi appeared as a female assassin in the final episode of the previous work, but she was actually the head of the Edo mansion of the clan's covert organization, the Rhinsoku-gumi.
Instead of the Ako Roshi (lordless samurai of Ako domain) Incident in the previous work, the relationship between Aoe and Sachi is one of the themes throughout the work from this work to the final work “An Assassin's Dagger - Yojimbo Nichigetsusho（A Daily/ Monthly Record of A Bodyguard）” （To be continued）