Zatoichi


Zatoichi is a fictional character featured in one of Japan's longest-running series of films, as well as a television series. Both are set during the late Edo period. The character, a blind masseur and blademaster, was created by novelist Kan Shimozawa.
This originally minor character was developed for the screen by Daiei Film and actor Shintaro Katsu, who created the screen version. A total of 26 films were made from 1962 to 1989. From 1974 to 1979, the television series Zatoichi was produced, starring Katsu and some of the same actors that appeared in the films. These were produced by Katsu Productions. 100 episodes, with episodes 99 and 100 being a two-part story finale, were aired before the Zatoichi television series was cancelled.
Film number 17 of the original series was remade in the US in 1990 as Blind Fury, an action film starring Rutger Hauer.
A 2003 film, Zatōichi, was directed by Takeshi Kitano who also starred as Zatōichi in the film. The film was awarded the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for Best Direction in 2003.
A stage version of Zatoichi directed by Takashi Miike starred Show Aikawa. It was performed and filmed in 2007 and released on home video under the title Miike Takashi × Aikawa Shō: Zatōichi on May 30, 2008.

Character

Zatoichi at first comes across as a harmless blind anma and bakuto who wanders the land, making his living by chō-han as well as giving massages, performing acupuncture and even, on occasion, singing and playing music. Secretly, however, he is very highly skilled in swordsmanship, specifically Muraku-school kenjutsu and iaido along with the more general sword skills of Japan, as well as sumo wrestling and kyujutsu.
Little of his past is revealed, other than that he lost his sight as a child through illness. His father disappeared for undisclosed reasons when Zatoichi was about five years old. He is described by his swordsmanship instructor as having practiced constantly and with extreme devotion when he was a pupil in order to develop his incredible skills. Zatoichi says of himself that he became a yakuza during those three years he spent training and killed many people, something he later came to deeply regret. This is reflected in his willingness to involve himself in the affairs of others—chiefly, those suffering from oppression/exploitation, or some form of corruption. Despite that moral re-assessment and his new perspective and remorse, he usually has a bounty on his head from one source or another throughout the movies and series. However, because of his earnestness, wit, and natural sense of empathy, many people who encounter him during his travels grow to respect and even care for him.
Unlike a bushi, he does not carry a traditional katana. Instead, he uses a well-made shikomi-zue, as the use or possession of true fighting blades was formally outlawed for non-samurai during the Edo period. The decree was virtually impossible to enforce, however, as evidenced by the Yakuza enforcers being shown wielding katanas throughout the films. The blades of Shikomi-zue were generally straight-edged, of lower-quality, unfolded steel, which could not compare with even a low-end katana. As a result, the blade in Ichi's cane sword is broken during the climactic battle in Zatoichi the Fugitive. The sword has a new blade by the next film, which he wields until the fifteenth film Zatoichi's Cane Sword. The blade and the blade that replaces it were specially forged at great expense and with far more than the usual care by master bladesmiths and were both of exceptional quality, superior to the swords of even most samurai. At the beginning of Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, his swordblade inexplicably breaks and is sold to a blacksmith along with its hilt and scabbard. Its replacement is not a shikomi-zue, but a jotō of unrevealed origin that resembles a short, thick bo staff, which also soon breaks. In the next film, Zatoichi: The Festival of Fire, he is once again using his trademark cane sword, outfitted with a new blade of unknown origin and quality.
The principal recurring thematic formula of these films and the television series is that of the ever-wandering and sentimental drifter who protects the innocent and the helpless from oppressive or warring yakuza gangs, stops the worst of general injustice or predation and aids the unfortunate, and often, through no fault of his own, is set upon by ruffians or stumbles into harm's way. Zatoichi's saga is essentially one of an earthy but basically good and wise man almost always trying to do the decent thing, to somehow redeem himself and perhaps atone for past failings. Nevertheless, he believes himself instead to be a stained, corrupted and evil man, irredeemable and undeserving of the love and respect that some show and rightly have for him. This self-described "god of calamities" is routinely a magnet for troubles of one sort or another. Death is his only constant companion, as he pragmatically does not allow other people, especially those he loves or thinks highly of, to get close and stay there for long; such would lead to eventual tragedy. Death does seem, like a shadow, to actually follow an often reluctant Zatoichi almost everywhere he goes, and despite his mostly compassionate nature, killing appears to come entirely naturally to him.
His lightning-fast fighting skill is incredible, with his sword held in a reverse grip; this, combined with his unflappable steel-nerved wits in a fight, his keen ears, sense of smell and proprioception, all render him a formidable adversary. He is also quite capable with a traditional katana, as seen in Zatoichi's Vengeance and the bath house scene in Zatoichi and the Festival of Fire. Similarly, he displays considerable skill using two swords simultaneously, in Musashi-like Nitō Ichi style in Zatoichi and the Doomed Man. Almost preternaturally dangerous with blades, he is fully capable of fighting and swiftly defeating multiple skilled opponents simultaneously. Some, however, have come close to besting him in combat, in particular during the final duel in Zatoichi Challenged, where extenuating circumstances played a role.
A number of other standard scenarios are also repeated through the series: Zatoichi's winning of large amounts at gambling via his ability to hear whether the dice have fallen on even or odd is a common theme, as is his catching loaded or substituted dice by the difference in their sound. This frequently culminates in another set piece, Zatoichi's cutting the candles lighting the room and reducing it to pitch blackness, commonly accompanied by his tag line "Kurayami nara kotchi no mon da"|暗闇ならこっちのもんだ.
The character's name is actually Ichi. Zatō is a title, the lowest of the four official ranks within the Tōdōza, the historical guild for blind men. Ichi is therefore properly called Zatō-no-Ichi, or Zatōichi for short. Massage was a traditional occupation for the blind, as was playing the biwa or, for blind women, the shamisen. Being lesser Hinin, blind people and masseurs were regarded as among the very lowest of the low in social class, other than Eta or outright criminals; they were generally considered wretches, beneath notice, no better than beggars or even the insane—especially during the Edo period—and it was also commonly thought that the blind were accursed, despicable, severely mentally disabled, deaf and sexually dangerous.

The original series of films

The original series of 26 films featured Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi. The first film was made in 1962 in black and white. The third film, in 1963, was the first to be filmed in color. The 25th film was made in 1973, followed by a hiatus of 16 years until Katsu's last film, which he wrote and directed himself in 1989.
The original series of movies features other popular fictional characters of the genre on two occasions. Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman connects with the Shaw Brothers series of Hong Kong-produced movies directed by prolific director Chang Cheh; and Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo features Toshiro Mifune as Imperial Shogunate Secret Agent Daisaku Sasa. This character resembles the title character of Akira Kurosawa's films Yojimbo and Sanjuro. The earlier films, in which Mifune's character used the pseudonym Sanjuro, are alluded to when Sassa is jokingly called Shijuro.

List of original films

The television series Zatoichi ran for four seasons—a total of 100 episodes—with Shintaro Katsu in the lead role:
  1. 26 episodes, in 1974
  2. 29 episodes, in 1976
  3. 19 episodes, in 1978
  4. 26 episodes, in 1979
Most of the stories in the television series are original dramas, but some are essentially redacted remakes of the full-length Zatoichi films of the previous decade such as Season One, Episode 14, "Fighting Journey with Baby in Tow" ; Season One, Episode 16, "The Winds From Mt. Akagi".
The first season of television shows has been released with English subtitles from Media Blasters / Tokyo Shock.

Production companies

The first 20 films were produced and distributed by Daiei Film.
The last 6 films were also produced by Katsu Productions. Distribution of these films was done by Dainichi Eihai, Toho, and Shochiku which released Katsu's last Zatoichi film in 1989. It was re-released in 2004; this was no doubt sparked by the new 2003 Zatoichi film, Zatoichi, starring Takeshi Kitano, which Shochiku also released.
Chambara Entertainment/Video Action of Honolulu held the original VHS release rights to the Zatoichi film series numbers 1-20, though it only released some of them. Chambara eventually expired its North American release license. AnimEigo held the remainder of the VHS rights.
Home Vision Entertainment was granted United States distribution rights to the original Daiei films, and released them on DVD: the films were numbered 1-13, 15, and 17-19. AnimEigo released seven of the films: Zatoichi the Outlaw, Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, Zatoichi at the Fire Festival, Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman, Zatoichi at Large, Zatoichi in Desperation, and Zatoichi at the Blood Fest.
Media Blasters have released both the 1989 film and the first season of the TV series.
The Criterion Collection released the first 25 films as a dual-format Blu-ray and DVD boxed set on November 26, 2013.

Remakes and spin-offs

''Blind Fury''

In 1989, TriStar Pictures released a remake called Blind Fury, starring Rutger Hauer as a Vietnam War vet who is blinded, then taught to use a cane sword by a local tribe before returning home to America. This film is based on Zatoichi Challenged, the 17th film in the original series.

''Zatoichi'' (2003 film)

In 2003, Takeshi Kitano wrote, directed and appeared in a new high-budget Zatoichi film, called simply Zatoichi. It premiered on September 3, 2003 at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Silver Lion award, and went on to numerous other awards both at home and abroad. It also stars Tadanobu Asano, Michiyo Okusu, Yui Natsukawa, Guadalcanal Taka, Daigiro Tachibana, Yuko Daike, Ittoku Kishibe, Saburo Ishikura, and Akira Emoto.
Zatoichi discovers a small, remote mountain town that has been overtaken by a bullying gang that is extorting money from the townspeople. As Zatoichi seeks to liberate the town, he encounters a rōnin seeking employment to pay for his ailing wife's needs, and two geisha who are seeking to avenge the murder of their parents, but he soon discovers that they are not what they seem to be.
The soundtrack was composed by Keiichi Suzuki and the Japanese tap dance troupe The Stripes.

''Ichi''

In Ichi, a blind female musician who is rescued by Zatoichi travels through Japan to find her mentor.

''Zatoichi: The Last''

released a new Zatoichi film starring Shingo Katori titled on May 29, 2010.

In other works