From Manga Daisuki:
Once upon a time in the east... a mercenary called Kogaratsu. Samurai in the service of a sire, or errant knight without fixed attachment, caught in a fratricidal war, and confronted with superstitious farmers, Nakamura Kogaratsu always follows the same guidelines in his life: his honour, his love, and his weapons. And in the tumultuous Japan of the XVIIst century, honour is the small margin between life and death, love a weakness and the strength of weapons a calling.