Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
core novel 1996 Moribito
Record
| First published | 1996 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.04 (3,069 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| Page count | 288 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780545005425 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The first novel in Nahoko Uehashi's Moribito series introduces Balsa, a wandering spear-wielding warrior who has vowed to save as many lives as she can to atone for eight deaths in her past. She is hired as a bodyguard for Prince Chagum after his own father, the Mikado, secretly orders his assassination, and the two set out on a dangerous journey to keep the boy alive. The prince carries a hidden burden: he harbors a mysterious connection to a legendary water spirit whose presence is said to be able to bring ruin to the kingdom, and this secret makes him a target for political enemies as well as supernatural danger. As Balsa works to protect Chagum from those who would see him dead, fragments of her own complicated past begin to surface alongside the growing mystery of the spirit bound to the prince.
Where it sits
- Universe: Moribito
- Series: Moribito core; position 1 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Nahoko Uehashi
Notes
- From the series record (Moribito): A Japanese-language fantasy series (translated by Cathy Hirano) following Balsa, a veteran spear-wielding bodyguard, protecting a young prince who carries the egg of a water spirit. Only the first two of the ten Japanese novels have been published in English translation; the remaining eight (spanning original Japanese publication from 2000 to 2018) are catalogued here as out of scope for now since no confirmed English edition exists, consistent with this database's practice of not inventing coverage it cannot verify.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Moribito: position 1 of 2: next Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness (1999)
Sources
← Moribito dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.