Gainamon: The Life of Takeshiro Matsuura is a historical novel about the explorer known for naming Hokkaido. Framed as the elderly Matsuura recounting his past to Kawanabe Kyosai's daughter, it brings out his Ezo surveys, his view of the Ainu, and the upheavals of the Bakumatsu and Meiji eras.

The northern land and the distortions of an era seen by the extraordinary Takeshiro Matsuura.