The novels, one of the most famous popular fictions in Japan, depicts the activities of a royalist who called himself 'Kurama Tengu' (a long-nosed goblin who lives on Mt. Kurama) at the end of the Edo period.
幕末期を舞台に「鞍馬天狗」を名乗る勤王志士の活躍を描いたもので、大衆小説の代表作である。