Kantaro, known as a rowdy boy in the town of Ina, attacked the local boss, Kaneoni's Arahira, all by himself, but was defeated by a large group of people and thrown into the Tenryu River, never to be seen again. Three years later, Kantaro, who was rumored to be dead, was reported to have appeared at a boarding house upstream of the Tenryu River by Genkō, a horseman who had been saved by Kantaro. O-Mitsu, the daughter of Chokai-ji Temple, who had secretly been in love with Kantaro, was thrilled by the rumor and told her father, the monk Ryokai, about it. However, Ryokai was none other than the one who had rescued Kantaro from the boarding house three years earlier and had secretly sent him to Edo.