The Tokugawa Shogunate sends the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu (Kunihiko Mitamura), to Kyoto to demonstrate its prestige to the world. However, the man in the procession is not actually Iemitsu himself, but an unsuccessful actor named Shinkichi (Korokke), who has been made into a shadow warrior. Iemitsu, who dislikes the formalities and rules of the long journey, takes the name Tokuyama Takenoshin, a ronin, and sets off on the Tokaido Highway toward Kyoto, surrounded by his friends Yagyu Jubei (Katsuno Hiroshi), who guards him in the shadows, Okubo Hikozaemon (Kamiyama Shigeru) and Isshintasuke (Sanba Toyokazu), and Otsuta (Manda Hisako), a woman pickpocket who falls for Takenoshin. Along the way, numerous incidents await them, but how will Iemitsu stand up to them?