 During the American occupation of Japan, Murakami wrote a novel about the swordsman Sasaki Kojirō, a famous enemy of Miyamoto Musashi.The novel, which was serialized in the Asahi Shimbun and turned into a film in 1950, was notable as one of the few examples of "jidaigeki" that survived the strict censorship of the time.He became known as a standard-bearer for the revival of popular literature in the postwar period.