Iara

A young man named Tsuchimaro and a servant girl named Saname fall in love during the Nara period. Tsuchimaro is imprisoned while working on the construction of the Great Buddha, and Saname follows him. She becomes the wife of Kuninaka no Kimimaro, the project's overseer. While imprisoned, Saname is captured and killed by being poured into the Great Buddha with molten copper. As she dies, she shouts the word "Iara," witnessed by Tsuchimaro. Across several historical periods, including the Kamakura, Azuchi-Momoyama, Edo, and modern times, a man resembling Kimimaro appears, searching for the meaning behind the word "Iara" and the woman who spoke it. Volumes 3-6 of the series contain unrelated one-shot stories under the Ishoku Tanpen series and do not contribute to the main narrative.