Shintarō Katsu, Shigeru Amachi, Jun Hamamura, Gen Kimura, Kanae Kobayashi, Kōichi Mizuhara, Mayumi Ogawa, Kei Satō, Michi Azuma, Saburo Date, Jun Fujikawa, Yukio Horikita, Sumao Ishihara, Yukiko Komura, Hideo Kuroki
Zatoichi comes upon a dying man who asks him to give a bag of money to "Taichi". Zatoichi has no idea who this is but when he comes upon a small town harassed by gangsters, he finds that "Taichi" was the man's young son. Along his travels he also met a blind monk who makes Zatoichi question his murderous lifestyle. In trying to help the town, Zatoichi kills some gangsters and becomes a hero to the boy. He must make a choice of whether to use non-violence and set a good example, or violence and set the boy on the wrong path in life.