In a time of continuous civil wars ravaging the fields of feudal Japan, the eldest son of a very poor peasant family, living alongside the bridge over the Fuefuki river, decides to serve a warlord to escape his miserable condition, being soon followed by his younger brothers. Although not all the men of the family take this tragic path of death, women of the family will be doomed to endure the pain of loss during the next five generations.
Takahiro Tamura
Hideko Takamine
Matsumoto Hakuō II
Kichiemon Nakamura II
Shinji Tanaka
Shima Iwashita
Michiko Araki
Yūsuke Kawazu
Nakamura Kanzaburō XVII
Yoshi Katō
Fumio Watanabe
Kuniko Igawa
Tōru Abe
Toshiko Kobayashi
Masao Oda
Hisano Yamaoka
Etsuko Ichihara
Tōru Takeuchi
Hiroko Itō
Toshiko Yabuki
Torahiko Hamada
Izumi Hara
Shojiro Ogasawara
Shin Ibuki
Tokuji Kobayashi
Rō Ose
Masanao Kawakane
Tsutomu Niijima
Jun Tanizaki
Akie Kokubu
Eiji Tsumura
Hideo Asami
Nobuo Takagi
Hisashi Taki
Kazuo Kobayashi
Kanji Ōsugi
Haruko Chichibu