Set in the 18th century, the show follows the Shogun Yoshimune, who likes to disguise himself as a low-ranking samurai and go into his capital of Edo to see the life of the common man, as well as to seek out and punish evildoers who would hurt his citizens. He is aided by Magistrate Oo'oka and a vivacious fireman, Tatsugoro, as well as a rotating cast of other recurring characters. Along with Zenigata Heiji and Mito Kōmon, it ranks among the longest-running series in the jidaigeki genre. Like so many other jidaigeki, it falls in the category of kanzen-chōaku, loosely, "rewarding good and punishing evil."
Episode 1
Roughhousing daimyo Tokugawa Yoshimune of Kishu reluctantly becomes the Shogun so that he may bring prosperity to everyone in the country. On his procession to Edo Palace, he runs into his old friend Tatsugoro, and a little girl begging for a pardon for her father on death row. Yoshimune decides to sneak out of Edo Palace and do a little detective work.
Episode 2
Ogyu Shosen is called a quack doctor, but Yoshimune thinks he should be made surgeon-general.
Episode 3
Hatamoto firemen are causing a nuisance and thieving in town, so fiery Tatsugoro and his gang of construction workers aim to take them down.
Episode 4
A hatamoto's spoiled brat daughter is in the habit of thieving and blaming it on commoners. Meanwhile, Yoshimune becomes preternaturally obsessed with a den-den taiko (a type of child's toy).
Episode 5
No overview available.
Episode 6
No overview available.
Episode 7
No overview available.
Episode 8
No overview available.
Episode 9
No overview available.
Episode 10
No overview available.
Episode 11
No overview available.
Episode 12
Yoshimune's old friend from Kishu, a female lumberjack, comes to Edo to engage in lumber trade, but gets in trouble.
Episode 13
Yoshimune's old friends from Kishu, Sakichi and Onatsu of the lumber store, are leaving town, so Yoshimune comes to bring them a present. He ends up getting in the way of a drug bust and is mistaken for a drug dealer.
Episode 14
Fireman Genzo wins the lottery, but is then reported to the police for having a forged ticket.
Episode 15
Even though he has been made surgeon-general, nobody trusts Ogawa Shosen or Yoshimune's city hospital. Yoshimune decides to get himself admitted as Shin-san to investigate from within.
Episode 16
No overview available.
Episode 17
Satsuma domain bully a store that is in their debt by trying to steal the storekeeper's girlfriend, and by framing them for theft. Only a man of stone can save Tamba-ya from destruction!
Episode 18
Yoshimune really wants to attend a festival in Edo, but he has important business to attend to in the palace. Jii says he can go out as long as he is back by 4 PM. This doesn't seem likely, since Yoshimune gets involved in a big fistfight and village drama.
Episode 19
Tatsugoro's family is indebted to a samurai family, so Tatsugoro gives the samurai family his very best fireman to adopt, since the samurai have no heir of their own. The other samurai do not like him.
Episode 20
No overview available.
Episode 21
No overview available.
Episode 22
No overview available.
Episode 23
No overview available.
Episode 24
No overview available.
Episode 25
No overview available.
Episode 26
No overview available.
Episode 27
No overview available.
Episode 28
No overview available.
Episode 29
No overview available.
Episode 30
No overview available.
Episode 31
No overview available.
Episode 32
Ryuko and Isonokaze were sumo wrestlers for a clan who tried to make them throw a match. Ryuko hides out at the fire house and meets Shin-san, who is very excitable and really, really wants to wrestle him. Eventually Shin-san learns of the wrestling drama that is unfolding...
Episode 33
A certain han ruled by a child lord is having money trouble, so one of the han's samurai starts a sweet bean soup restaurant to try and raise funds. The samurai has some trouble getting customers...
Episode 34
No overview available.
Episode 35
A land reclamation project is taking place largely with Shogunate funds, carried out by contract with 2 companies (which are marrying their kids together as the ultimate symbol of the contract). One of the companies invents a bomb with a long fuse, to blow up a mountainous area in the reclamation zone. The other company decides to assassinate the first company, and steals the bomb...
Episode 36
No overview available.
Episode 37
No overview available.
Episode 38
No overview available.
Episode 39
No overview available.
Episode 40
No overview available.
Episode 41
No overview available.
Episode 42
No overview available.
Episode 43
Female ninja Osono's dad Seiemon comes to town. He is now a cotton-farming country samurai. Needs dried sardines for fertilizer. The hatamoto of sardineland is driving the fishermens' prices down so all the farmers secretly sell to Seiemon. The merchant tries to assassinate Seiemon and fails, since Seiemon is a ninja. Seiemon stays at the firehouse and plans to secretly assassinate the criminals, then kill himself, because he's depressed.
Episode 44
No overview available.
Episode 45
A man makes little pretty sugar candies for kids and tells funny stories. He used to be a counterfeiter because of his great manual dexterity, but vowed to turn his life around. Shin-san becomes interested in candy just when the guy's old friends force him to counterfeit again...
Episode 46
No overview available.
Episode 47
Edo is invigorated by an unusually aggressive and outspoken female doctor, Oshino, who physically beats her patients if they do not obey her.
Episode 48
No overview available.
Episode 49
No overview available.
Episode 50
No overview available.
Episode 51
No overview available.
Episode 52
A bad gang leader kidnaps Tadasuke's wife (who never appeared before or since), as she went to the shrine to pray for a baby. Tadasuke decides that justice outweighs his bride and prepares to prosecute the gang leader anyway, so Shin-san lets the prisoner go secretly to try and follow him to Tadasuke's bride...
Episode 53
Clannish Edoite sake sellers turn against a travelling Osakan female sake seller to force her out of the market; only her long-lost son, an Edoite sake seller, can save her.
Episode 54
Oshino, the female doctor with a fist, is in charge of a temple that gives free medical service to orphans, but it is reputed that she is stealing all the money instead.
Episode 55
Shoheiko, the official Shogunate college, has an admissions scandal where the bureaucrats turn out to have been accepting bribes for admissions. Yoshimune suggests opening it to commoners and calls up some obscure scholars; the vicious bureaucrats attack and kill one. Shin-san absolutely loses his mind, but Tatsugoro is there to give him a helping hand.
Episode 56
Ryuko's friend is killed by a rice wholesaler. Shin-san investigates this and discovers a whole sordid rice-based drama, including collective punishment, famine, and assassination.
Episode 57
No overview available.
Episode 58
No overview available.
Episode 59
No overview available.
Episode 60
No overview available.
Episode 61
No overview available.
Episode 62
No overview available.
Episode 63
No overview available.
Episode 64
No overview available.
Episode 65
No overview available.
Episode 66
No overview available.
Episode 67
No overview available.
Episode 68
No overview available.
Episode 69
An unbalanced ronin wants to become the sword teacher to a daimyo, so he can get enough money to buy back his really sexy sword from the pawn shop. However, a competitor attacks him, crippling the ronin's hand. Shin-san is really mad about this, even though the ronin attacked him earlier.
Episode 70
No overview available.
Episode 71
No overview available.
Episode 72
A pregnant safflower farmer's husband is run over by the local lord's horse. She's lured to the daikan's office to get compensated but is raped and turned into the lord's concubine instead. She schemes to have herself murdered so Ooka Echizen will enter the manor and discover these great crimes.
Episode 73
A kind but untalented kitchen-supervisor samurai is assigned to accompany his domain's gift to the Shogun: big blocks of ice. Shin-san, tramping around Shinjuku, accidentally discovers this delivery and starts accompanying it too, and discovers a rival domain is trying to kill the ice to humiliate the first domain.
Episode 74
A mysterious illness (beriberi) becomes common and Yoshimune calls his doctor to find out what the cause is. His doctor says only his own special blend of medicine (very expensive) can cure it. Oshino, the female doctor with a fist, however, believes the solution is more simple (and involves punching people).
Episode 75
Kano Gorozaemon, who is practically Yoshimune's adoptive father, goes out into Edo to get a surprise present for the Shogun, and is kidnapped by a nutter who wants to frame him for murder to steal his job.
Episode 76
A lord lets 3 master ghost actresses into his house as maids, somehow doesn't connect this with supernatural happenings in his house.
Episode 77
Kikue, the daughter of a potter, comes to Edo and meets her old friend Shin-san, who she recognizes as the Shogun. She came to marry Kano Gorozaemon, who proposed to her when she was eight (??!) but Kano backed out.
Episode 78
The Ogobanshu (kind of like a guild of hatamotos) want to hunt, but in setting the borders of the hunting area they recklessly steal the corner of a VERY sensitive farmer's farm.
Episode 79
Matsumae domain officials and the store Ebisu-ya are conspiring to give predatory loans to alcohol shops. Lady merchant Omasa from Osaka wants to get a better deal, and her son unfortunately took the debt from his main sake supplier, so now she needs to get money to save both their skins.
Episode 80
Hatamotos, a domain, a runaway killer samurai from the domain, the firemen, and jii for some reason, all end up in a gigantic free for all fight.
Episode 81
No overview available.
Episode 82
No overview available.
Episode 83
No overview available.
Episode 84
No overview available.
Episode 85
No overview available.
Episode 86
No overview available.
Episode 87
No overview available.
Episode 88
No overview available.
Episode 89
No overview available.
Episode 90
No overview available.
Episode 91
No overview available.
Episode 92
No overview available.
Episode 93
No overview available.
Episode 94
No overview available.
Episode 95
No overview available.
Episode 96
No overview available.
Episode 97
No overview available.
Episode 98
No overview available.
Episode 99
No overview available.
Episode 100
No overview available.
Episode 101
No overview available.
Episode 102
No overview available.
Episode 103
No overview available.
Episode 104
No overview available.
Episode 105
No overview available.
Episode 106
No overview available.
Episode 107
No overview available.
Episode 108
No overview available.
Episode 109
No overview available.
Episode 110
No overview available.
Episode 111
No overview available.
Episode 112
No overview available.
Episode 113
No overview available.
Episode 114
No overview available.
Episode 115
No overview available.
Episode 116
No overview available.
Episode 117
No overview available.
Episode 118
No overview available.
Episode 119
No overview available.
Episode 120
No overview available.
Episode 121
No overview available.
Episode 122
No overview available.
Episode 123
No overview available.
Episode 124
No overview available.
Episode 125
No overview available.
Episode 126
No overview available.
Episode 127
No overview available.
Episode 128
No overview available.
Episode 129
No overview available.
Episode 130
No overview available.
Episode 131
No overview available.
Episode 132
No overview available.
Episode 133
No overview available.
Episode 134
No overview available.
Episode 135
No overview available.
Episode 136
No overview available.
Episode 137
No overview available.
Episode 138
No overview available.
Episode 139
No overview available.
Episode 140
No overview available.
Episode 141
No overview available.
Episode 142
No overview available.
Episode 143
Shin-san accidentally gets involved with two low-class thieving morons, to Tatsugoro's horror. Tatsugoro finally manages to get rid of them, and one of them is promptly killed by evil ninjas for having seen something he should not have. Yoshimune learns they were raising a bunch of orphans in an awful shack with their scammed money, and decides he must avenge the dead criminal.
Episode 144
No overview available.
Episode 145
No overview available.
Episode 146
No overview available.
Episode 147
No overview available.
Episode 148
No overview available.
Episode 149
No overview available.
Episode 150
No overview available.
Episode 151
No overview available.
Episode 152
No overview available.
Episode 153
No overview available.
Episode 154
No overview available.
Episode 155
No overview available.
Episode 156
No overview available.
Episode 157
No overview available.
Episode 158
No overview available.
Episode 159
No overview available.
Episode 160
No overview available.
Episode 161
No overview available.
Episode 162
No overview available.
Episode 163
No overview available.
Episode 164
No overview available.
Episode 165
No overview available.
Episode 166
No overview available.
Episode 167
No overview available.
Episode 168
No overview available.
Episode 169
No overview available.
Episode 170
No overview available.
Episode 171
No overview available.
Episode 172
No overview available.
Episode 173
No overview available.
Episode 174
No overview available.
Episode 175
No overview available.
Episode 176
No overview available.
Episode 177
No overview available.
Episode 178
No overview available.
Episode 179
No overview available.
Episode 180
No overview available.
Episode 181
No overview available.
Episode 182
No overview available.
Episode 183
No overview available.
Episode 184
No overview available.
Episode 185
No overview available.
Episode 186
No overview available.
Episode 187
No overview available.
Episode 188
No overview available.
Episode 189
No overview available.
Episode 190
No overview available.
Episode 191
No overview available.
Episode 192
No overview available.
Episode 193
No overview available.
Episode 194
No overview available.
Episode 195
No overview available.
Episode 196
No overview available.
Episode 197
No overview available.
Episode 198
No overview available.
Episode 199
No overview available.
Episode 200
No overview available.
Episode 201
No overview available.
Episode 202
No overview available.
Episode 203
No overview available.
Episode 204
No overview available.
Episode 205
No overview available.
Episode 206
No overview available.
Episode 207
No overview available.
