The blind massage Zatoichi is hired by yakuza gang-leader Sukegoro (Eijiro Yanagi) as he thinks that war is inevitable with the rival yakuza Shigezo (Ryuzo Shimada). Zatoichi has a distinguished reputation as a swordsman and Sukegoro thinks he is money well spent. Shigezo responds by hiring a ronin of similar repute, Miki Hirate (Shigeru Amachi). Ichi is a meek and humble man who is commonly underestimated by most men, and looked upon suspiciously. His being a masseur, which was a position of low regard in feudal Japan, merely increases the hostility that is shown towards him. They even try to take advantage of his blindness in a gambling den, but from early on it is clear that Zatoichi draws strength from his disability.
One year after the first film, Zatōichi travels back to the town near the Joshoji Temple, to pay respects at the grave of Hirate, the samurai he killed. Three brigands attack Zatōichi while he dries his clothes, and are despatched by a one-armed swordsman. Later that day, Zatōichi is hired to massage a powerful lord who, unbeknownst to all but the lord's highest retainers, is insane. Zatōichi observes the nobleman's unstable mental condition, and the retainers decide to kill him. Zatōichi defeats the first three attackers, and retires to a restaurant. The attack having failed, the lord's men hire local yakuza (gangsters) to finish the job. Learning of this, Zatoichi remarks to himself that he would have kept quiet if they had just asked him to do so.
Ichi travels to his old village four years after he stopped training. On the way he meets his childhood friend Tamekichi. Tamekichi, his wife and child have become poor, and must make a living with music. While at an inn, a group of travelers are robbed by four thieves but Ichi does not stop them.
Ichi (which is the main character's name, Zato being the lowest rank in the Todoza) is attacked by a young yakuza man he has never met. The man is despatched and tells Ichi that he did it to get ten ryo reward for his mother. Ichi travels to the mother's town and enters a local sumo match and defeats several sighted opponents. While Maki, the young man's mother, accepts Ichi as honorable for confessing to the death, the opponents, part of a local Yakuza gang, seek to reclaim their honor by claiming Ichi's life.
Ichi is being taken to Doyoma, all expenses paid by an employee of Doyoma crime boss Hikozo, on the promise of just meeting with Hikozo, no obligation to do anything. On the way his guide is killed by Hikozo's rivals who overheard Ichi and his guide at a tea house. Ichi kills them including the husband of Hisa, a woman who watches the short fight. She tells him this when he asks and they part coolly.
Ichi travels to the village of Itakura to pay respects at the grave of a man he killed two years earlier. At the grave he reminisces on a fight between the two yakuza gangs (Iioka and Sasagawa from an earlier film) one man ran away and, though Ichi was not taking part in the fight, attacked Ichi. The dead man's sister, Chiyo, overhears Ichi say this to himself.
A lone yakuza musketeer chases after Ichi alongside a canal and shoots him in retaliation for Ichi cutting the yakuza boss and to earn the prestige of his more experienced fellows. His fellow yakuza arrive and he claims to have killed Ichi but without a corpse they don't believe him. Ichi is rescued from the water and a travelling stranger pays a local townswoman to nurse Zatoichi back to health. When well again Ichi travels to the stranger's home town to express his gratitude. The yakuza learn of Ichi's survival and his destination. They go after him and leave the failed shooter behind. He goes alone to make up for his lost face.
A group of assassins stop a blind men pilgrimage making their way down the road. The assassins ask for Ichi, but they all claim variations of that name. They line them up against a building to look at their faces, but do not find Ichi and leave. One of the blind men brings Ichi out from his hiding place in the building, and they laugh at playing a prank on sighted men. Ichi goes on his way.
On his way to a village to celebrate the Japanese New Year, Zatoichi is asked by a man to deliver a message to a woman. Upon delivery, he rooms with a young women who is searching for her missing father.
Zatoichi's travels have finally brought him back to the village where he was trained in the arts of the masseur, nearly ten years ago by his old sensei, Master Hikonoichi. His proximity to his former teacher compels him to pay a visit, only to learn that Hikonoichi was recently killed while traveling, and his daughter Sayo has been Sexual slavery to repay the money lent to her father by local business man Tatsugoro. Zatoichi sets out to free Sayo, only to discover that the entire village is suffering -- victims of a scheme that has either forced their daughters into prostitution, or into doing the bidding of Tatsugoro, who is working for the corrupt Intendant, Isoda. Sayo provides him with the toggle of a medicine pouch, recovered from her father's hand.
もぐりバクチの罪で捕った座頭市は、牢内で無実の罪で死刑を宣せられたやくざ島蔵から、彼の無実を証明する兄弟分・黒馬の仙八か荒磯の重兵衛親分をたずねてくれるようにと頼まれた。翌朝牢を出た市は、若いやくざ百太郎と一緒になったが、市とは縁の深い青田の鎌十の許へわらじを脱いだ市が、下にもおかぬもてなしをうけるのに腹をたてて市と別れた。数日後大洗の宿で黒馬の仙八を訪ねあてた市は、島蔵の身の上を話して協力を頼んだ。一度はこれをひきうけた仙八だったが、その夜市は黒馬一家に寝込みを襲われた。得意の居合斬りで刺客を蹴散らした市は仙八をしめあげ、役人を買収し島蔵をおとしいれたのは、荒磯の重兵衛であることを聞きだし、さらに黒馬一家に監禁されていた妖艶な女お米を救けた。その後お米は市を慕って、どこまでも後を離れようとはしなかった。それからまた数日、市は百太郎の扮するニセ座頭市に悩まされながらも、島蔵の身を案じて、荒磯の重兵衛の許に急いだ。そのころ島蔵の娘お千代は、何とか島蔵を救おうと、必死の思いで重兵衛に嘆願した。しかし重兵衛は、そんなお千代の弱身につけこんでお千代の身体を奪おうとした。が、危機一髪かけつけた市は、必殺の逆手斬りで重兵衛の仔分をなぎたおし、重兵衛に島蔵の無罪を証明させる書付を書かせた。そこで市は、お千代から百太郎が島蔵の息子であることを聞かされた。市は早速重兵衛の書状を、刑場にはこばれる島蔵の許に届けた。無罪を証明されて涙を流してよろこぶ島蔵をあとに、市の孤影は鹿島灘の砂丘に消えていった。必死に後を追うお米をしたがえて……。
On a boat trip to Honshu island, Zatoichi (Katsu) makes the acquaintance of Jumonji (Narita), an expert shogi (Japanese chess) player and swordsman. Once on Honshu, a group of men that had tried to cheat Zatoichi at dice try to take revenge upon him- only for Ichi to turn the tables on them in the tussle. However, Miki, the niece of a woman named Otane, is injured in the confusion, compelling Ichi to go to great lengths to procure the medicine needed to cure her injury. When she recovers, the child sincerely thanks him, leaving him overwrought with emotion.
Traveling on the road, Zatoichi (Katsu) encounters a dying man who gives him a bag full of money and the name "Taichi". Traveling on, he makes the acquaintance of a blind biwa-playing priest. The two travel to a town that is having their annual Taiko festival. The town is under the domination of a Yakuza boss who extorts from the people.
Seeking to wikt:atonement for his violent past, Zatoichi (Katsu) embarks on a pilgrimage to visit the Shikoku Pilgrimage on Shikoku. On the road, a man (Igawa) attacks Zatoichi but is killed by him. Zatoichi follows the man's horse back to his home.
While travelling Zatoichi comes across a dying gangster boss called Shotaro. In a nearby town that has been overrun by gang belonging
In a rural village, Zatoichi (Katsu) encounters Shushi Ohara (Suzuki; modeled after 18th-century agriculturalist Yagaku Ohara) a sword-less rōnin who defends himself against multiple attackers without killing them. Ohara leads a peasant movement advocating the Abstinence from gambling, Alcoholic beverage#Alcohol consumption, and whoring.
Zatoichi (Katsu) checks into an inn where he shares a room with an ill woman and her young son named Ryota. Before the woman dies, she requests that Zatoichi take her son to his father, an artist living in the nearby town of Maebara. As they travel together, they hitch a ride with a traveling Performance art troupe.
秩父街道を旅する市は、とある宿場町に着いた。たまたま浪人者、弦八郎や松五郎一家に斬られた百姓を医者順庵にかつぎ込んだことから順庵と親しくなった。順庵は何故か、娘お志律の心配をよそに酒びたりだった。間もなく、順庵の家に世話になった市のところへ、松五郎から迎えが来た。用心棒になってほしいというのだった。断った市をやくざどもは斬りつけたものの、市の居合いの妙技には息をのむばかりだった。そんな市に、弦八郎の女お秋は警告した。その直後、弦八郎は松五郎の依頼で、庄屋の徳左衛門を斬殺した。この暴挙に市は一味の逃亡を妨げようとしたが、弦八郎と対峙した時、短銃で射たれ肩先に弦八郎の刀を受けてしまった。市の手当てをしたのはもちろん、順庵父娘だが、松五郎たちはすぐさま追ってきた。しかし、市の姿は順庵の家から消えていた。順庵とお志津は松五郎の機織場に連れこまれ、拷問を受けた。一方姿を隠していた市は知らせを受けて松五郎一家に乗り込んだ。傷口から血を流し、よろめきながらだったが、市の闘いぶりはすさまじかった。順庵とお志津を安全な場所に逃がすと、仕込杖を握り斬って斬って斬りまくった。やがて阿修羅のように斬りまくるその市の前に、弦八郎が現われた。間合いを計った弦八郎は大刀を一閃、とび違った市の仕込杖がキラリと光った。倒れたのは弦八郎だった。その時、様子を見に来たお志律と順庵は、倒れた弦八郎にすがりついた。弦八郎は順庵の息子だった。やむを得ない仕儀とはいえ、またしても人を斬り、順庵父娘を悲しみに追いやった市は自分がいやにならざるを得なかった。宿場町を黙って去っていく市の肩は重い。
During his wanderings, Zatoichi comes across with a group of people connected with an infamous Yakuza boss, known as "Dark Lord" Yamikubo. Yamikubo is Blindness like Ichi, but he is indeed evil, and rules with an iron fist a great region of lands and towns who pay tribute to him. After Zatoichi tries to help a woman who has been bought at a "mistress auction" organized by one of Yamikubo's henchmen, the Dark Lord uses the beautiful Okiyo, his protégé, as a spy who must seduce and take Ichi his ''shikomi-zue'' (cane sword) away. But shortly after meeting him, Okiyo falls in love with Ichi and refuses to carry out her mission. Yamikubo then devises another way of drawing the blind swordsman close and kill him during the famous "Fire Festival", which Zatoichi decides to attend despite the danger involved.
