Most know Asakusa in Tokyo for Sensoji Temple and its surrounding souvenir arcades, but during the late Edo Period it was also the show business district of downtown Edo. These New Year performances, which now take place at the Kokaido, give opportunities to young actors to hone their skills as lead roles in a program of classic or new kabuki plays.
It begins at a riverbank near Ryogoku Bridge in downtown Edo. Suddenly, a woman in a black long-sleeved kimono appears and snatches the money from Otose, pushing her into the river. The money lender, seeing an opportunity, tries to take the money from the mysterious woman. But instead, she wrestles the Koshinmaru sword from him. The woman in black turns out to be Ojo Shichinosuke , a male thief in disguise. Obo Kamejiro , a ronin -turned-thief, who was watching from a nearby palanquin, steps in and asks Ojo to lend him the stolen ryo β a request that ends in a sword fight.
A third thief, Osho Ainosuke , who is passing by, breaks up the fight. When the three men discover they all have the same name β Kichisa β they make a brotherhood blood oath and Osho takes the ryo to his father Denkichi. Obo, however, unaware of who Denkichi is, later kills the man to retrieve the money. In Act 2, Scene 1, the three Kichisas, who are now being hunted by the police, meet at the Kichijoin Temple in Sugamo.
Horrified, the two decide to commit suicide but are stopped by Osho, who says he has a plan that will gain them their freedom. Since the Kichisas last met, Osho has been offered a pardon from the police in exchange for turning in his comrades. He has also discovered that Otose has had an incestual affair with his brother Juzaburo Kikaku , her twin no less.
Ojo climbs a turret to beat a drum that he knows will signal the re-opening of the gates, and Osho, who has escaped imprisonment and fled outside the city, re-enters.
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