But Matahachi loses all the money when a crook promises to find him a good position with a local lord.
Little by little, Matahachi spends more and more from Kojiro’s money and he even pretends to be Sasaki Kojiro. The priest leaves and Matahachi goes to Osaka where he tries to locate Kojiro’s sword master. During their fight, a few coins from Sasaki Kojiro’s pouch fall on the floor and when Matahachi claims the money is his, the old priest feels ashamed for having started a fight with a man who supposedly was about to pay him for the food he had eaten.
The next morning, Matahachi and the old priest have an altercation over the rice and sake Matahachi has eaten the previous night without the old priest’s permission. Matahachi hides for the night in an abandoned house where he eats an old priest’s food (Jotaro’s father) and, after inspecting the wondering samurai’s things, finds a pouch full of money and a scroll certifying Sasaki Kojiro’s mastery of the Chujo Style of swordsmanship. Believing that the wondering samurai is dead, Matahachi removes his belongings and runs away before the samurai who have tied the shugyosha’s body to a boulder return. The shugyosha kills the inspector for ripping his sketch book apart but is then overpowered by the labourers who pelt him down with rocks. But Matahachi is too dazed and tired to notice an inspector’s approach. While resting, Matahachi is approached by a shugyosha, a wondering samurai, who asks Matachachi to let him know if anyone comes his way while he sketches the surrounding area. At 22 and after having lived with Oko for five years, Matahachi finds himself a day laborer in Fushimi (located between Kyoto and Osaka), where he is one of the hands working on the new castle Tokugawa Yeyasu had ordered to be built.
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