Synopsis - The Sword & the Chrysanthemum,
Journey of the Heart

ARASHI is the handsome Eurasian fisherman whose origins are a mystery. He writes beautiful poetry and scorns the rules.

LADY MICHIKO is the unconventional daughter of the shogun. She writes racy novels and breaks the rules.

A wily eccentric, LORD MASAKADO is the ruthless shogun who makes the rules.

GENERAL SHIGEMORI, Masakado's chief samurai, is a psychotic warlord who kills for pleasure. He executes the rules.

Meeting secretly since childhood, Arashi and Michiko are two unlikely lovers in the brutal samurai period of class, blood and steel. Their destinies are interwoven threads in the fabric of a silk kimono.

Arashi is torn between his love for Michiko and the need to discover his roots. In keeping with the hero's journey, and under the guidance of the Zen monk KATO, Arashi sets out to resolve the mystery of his birth.

Kato forces him to toil through extreme tasks in exotic places before he learns the secrets of the wise ones, and the Way of the samurai. But only when Arashi surrenders his ego to the will of his master is he able to discover his true self and defeat the inner demons that torment him.

At first a pampered teenager in the shogun's court, Lady Michiko becomes her father's closest confidante, learned in politics and foreign affairs. The one soft spot in Masakado's samurai heart, he sends Michiko to China as his emissary. A dashing bodyguard accompanies her and falls for her.

But her heart is with Arashi. Through a close bond with the young Ming emperor, she learns well - guarded secrets of the Forbidden City that stun her.

Empowered with the living spirit of an ancient samurai sword, a transformed Arashi fights his way back from the heart of evil to join Michiko in China. A rivalry between the two suitors ensues. But soon they must flee for their lives in advance of the cataclysmic Manchu invasion that signals the fall of the Ming dynasty.

General Shigemori's obsession with becoming shogun carries him from brilliant military tactician and invincible swordsman, to a psychopathic murderer on the brink of madness. Having manipulated the death of Michiko's dearest childhood friend, a young samurai, Shigemori conspires to murder the shogun and take Michiko for himself.

Returning to Japan and openly declaring their love, Arashi and Michiko face a crisis. Shigemori wants Arashi dead; the shogun wishes he were never born. A samurai cannot marry a commoner. Michiko must choose between a father she adores and her role in his court, and the love of her life whose spiritual path she does not fully understand.

Japan is about to close its doors for 250 years. A Zen master with an imperfect past, an insane warlord obsessed with controlling the future, are the forces of good and evil that resonate throughout.

But whether in the spiritual realm, on the battlefield or in the bedroom, The Sword & the Chrysanthemum, Journey of the Heart is an allegory about the power of a love that opens all doors.