I J Parker: 3 books

After the loss of his wife and newborn son, Akitada returns home, ostensibly to care for his motherless children, but really to withdraw from the world into his grief. When his friends and family join in an effort to draw him out of his seclusion by tempting him with a mystery, he responds halfheartedly...

An unexpected and dubious promotion sends Akitada to Kyushu, an outpost where illegal trade with China breeds treason and murder. Leaving behind his family, he faces obstruction and hostility at his new post and learns his predecessor, a man of expensive tastes, has disappeared under suspicious circumstances....

In the streets of twelfth-century Kyoto, a homeless boy is brutalized and left to die.  A selfless physician saves him but cannot soften his hardened spirit.  Angry at the world and seeking vengeance against those who killed his parents, Hachiro rejects kindness and resolves to become a swordsman to...