pursuer. Later he rejoins the gang of assassins at an oiran house (courtesan brothel) in the Shimabara district of Kyoto. There, in a quiet (and he is told, haunted) room, he starts seeing the ghosts of all the people he has killed. Further, he is haunted by the words of Shimada: "The sword is the soul. Study the soul to know the sword. Evil mind, evil sword." The final blow comes when he realizes that the apprentice oiran sent to entertain him is the granddaughter of the pilgrim he murdered at the film's beginning. With this realization, Ryunosuke appears to descend into complete insanity. He starts slashing at the shadows of the ghosts that surround him, and then begins attacking his fellow assassins, who seem to number in the hundreds. Ryunosuke kills dozens of gang members in the burning courtesan house as they gradually wear him down with what few wounds they can inflict. Finally it appears that Ryunosuke will surely be killed; bleeding, his face contorted in rage, he lurches forward, raises his sword one last time, and the film ends with a freeze-frame catching Ryunosuke in mid sword-slash. Cast Production The Sword of Doom was an adaptation of Daibosatsu Toge (), a novel that has remained popular since its initial release, a year after the death of the Emperor Meiji, the ruler who oversaw Japan's transition from hermetically sealed feudal state to modern nation. The novel originated from a newspaper serial, which appeared for three more decades; forty-one volumes were published before it was left uncompleted at the death of its author, Kaizan Nakazato. The film had previously been adapted in two part film by Hiroshi Inagaki in 1935. After the war, it was remade again, in three parts by Kunio Watanabe in 1953 and in three parts by Tomu Uchida between 1957 and 1959, and in three parts by Kenji Misumi and Kazuo Mori in 1960 and 1961. The Sword of Doom was an adaptation imposed on Kihachi Okamoto by Toho after the studio was dissatisfied with his film The Age of Assassins, a film completed in 1966 but only released in 1967. Release Sword of Doom was distributed by Toho and was released on February 25, 1966. The film was released with English subtitles in the United States by Toho International on February 25, 1966. A proposed sequel was never produced. Reception In a contemporary review,