Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale
About this ebook
Tenth Anniversary Edition — with new author essays on the history behind the series
In the chaos of Japan's century-long civil war, young Risuko is sold to the legendary Lady Chiyome and taken to a remote mountain school. There she's trained alongside other girls in skills no one will explain — cooking, dancing, spying — for a purpose she's not meant to understand. But Risuko is a climber. She goes where she's not supposed to go. And what she discovers will thrust her into the heart of a conflict that could reshape a nation.
Book 1 of Seasons of the Sword — a complete four-book series
1 - Risuko (Winter)
2 - Bright Eyes (Spring)
3 - Kano (Summer)
4 - Murasaki (Autumn)
BAIPA Great Reads Award winner ·
Samurai, assassins, warlords — and a girl who likes to climb
It's 1570. Kano Murasaki — called Risuko ("Squirrel") — is a fatherless girl living in a ruined village, more comfortable in the treetops than on the ground. When the enigmatic Lady Chiyome purchases her from her desperate mother, Risuko is carried across a war-ravaged landscape to a mountain compound called the Full Moon.
There, she and two other recruits are trained by kunoichi — spies, bodyguards, assassins — in an education disguised as domestic service. Kitchen work becomes blade training. Dance becomes combat. And the women around her are far more dangerous than they appear.
But someone at the Full Moon is hiding a secret. When betrayal strikes at the heart of the compound, Risuko must decide what she's willing to become — and what she's willing to do — to protect the people she's come to love.
Risuko is the first book in Seasons of the Sword, a complete, award-winning, four-book series set during Japan's turbulent Sengoku period. Rich in historical detail, sharp with political intrigue, and driven by a heroine who keeps climbing higher than anyone expects.
What the Critics Say
"Tight, exciting, and thoughtful… The characters are nicely varied and all the pieces fit into place deftly." — Kirkus Reviews
"A powerful and relentless coming-of-age adventure… Risuko's development and evolution are fascinating to watch." — Foreword Reviews (spotlight review)
"Vividly portrayed, flush with cultural detail, and smoothly written." — BookLife
As featured in Kirkus, Foreword, and on the cover of Publishers Weekly!
On the Tenth Anniversary Edition
On June 15, 2026, Risuko turns ten. This anniversary edition features tighter prose, sharper pacing, and a new author's note exploring the real history behind the series — including the surprising truth about the legendary Lady Chiyome and the kunoichi.
— David Kudler
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Ratings and reviews
About the author
A native of Sausalito, California (famous mostly for being the town at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and for having a cookie named after it), David Kudler is an author, editor and performer.
He is the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Stillpoint Digital Press. Since 1999, he has overseen the publications program of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, where he has served as the managing editor of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series.
Risuko is his first novel. Bright Eyes, the sequel, comes out on May 5, 2022.
He lives in Mill Valley, California (the next town north from Sausalito) with his wife, teacher and author Maura Vaughn, their two author-to-be daughters, and their non-literary cats.
He is working on Bright Eyes, the sequel to his award-winning young-adult historical adventure novel Risuko.
Want to keep up with him? Sign up at stilpt.us/risuko!
