The shogun's sword tester and executioner--the o-tameshiyaku--is a position of great prestige requiring consummate skill. While the feared and respected Yamada ''Decapitator'' Asaemon holds the post, another swordmaster lives with the obsession of claiming the office, and this election can be won by only a single vote--cast in steel and certified in blood! From Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, the legendary creators of ''Lone Wolf and Cub,'' comes ''Samurai Executioner,'' a dark, complex exploration of Edo-period feudal Japan and the depths of the human spirit.