In the middle of a rainstorm, Ichi overhears a man being killed by a group and then dragged off into the brush. Tired of wandering, he decides to visit his hometown not noticing until later that the townspeople are living in fear of a local yakuza gang. At a tea-house, he meets Umeno, a former love interest. In the meantime, the boss's eldest son returns from university expecting a large sum of money to be paid to him, but the boss refuses. The youngest son, who also wants the money, hires Yojimbo (Toshiro Mifune) to assassinate him, as he is the boss's top enforcer. Yojimbo, however, is more than happy to bide his time drinking and making him wait. Eventually, another ronin armed with a double-barreled pistol wanders into town, wanting the bounty on Zatoichi's head. While Yojimbo makes short work of him, eventually the boy grows tired of his father's apparent unwillingness to hand over the gold and begins to build an army to combat him. Caught up in the middle of the conflict, Zatoich