The dual way of the Daimyo culture of feudal Japan combined the arts of war and the arts of the pen. This film examines the paradox of the warrior/aesthete through a survey of Daimyo arts, namely, architecture,landscape gardening, poetry, calligraphy, painting, the tea ceremony, Noh theater, and kendo (swordsmanship). Daimyo's unique blend of martial and aesthetic excellence was central to the shaping of Japanese culture, and its effects are present even today.