The Samurai (TV series)
The Samurai was a Japanese television historical drama series of the 1960s made by Senkosha Productions. The series premiered on October 7, 1962 in Japan and ran until March 1965. Its original Japanese title was Onmitsu Kenshi ("Spy swordsman"). The Samurai was shown in 10 stories (or series) usually of 13 episodes each.
Filmed in black-and-white, the series was based in part on historical events, but it borrowed heavily from the Japanese historical romance genre. The producers compensated for its low budget by using real historical locations around Japan, including the imposing feudal castles from the era.
It was the first Japanese TV program ever screened in Australia, where it premiered in 1964, and it built up a remarkably large fan-base among the teen and pre-teen children at the time, and it rapidly became a cult favourite. Despite its massive popularity in Japan, Australia, and the Philippines, the series was not widely screened elsewhere and its fame remains largely restricted to those countries.
Story
The series portrayed the adventures of a roving samurai, Akikusa Shintaro, whose real name is Matsudaira Nobuchiyo. Shintaro is the older half-brother of Ienari, the 11th Tokugawa shogun. Because he is the son of a concubine, he has no claim to power, so he assumes the guise of a wandering spy-swordsman (along with the name Shintaro) to seek out and eliminate plots by rival feudal lords, in this way protecting his younger brother, who is still a minor. Acting on secret orders from roju (chief councillor) Matsudaira Sadanobu, Shintaro gathers information in the various fiefdoms and battles rival warriors and spies, aided by his ninja friend Tombei the Mist. Shintaro is also helped by Shusaku, whose father has been kidnapped by Koga ninja, and whom Shusaku and Shintaro are also trying to find.
Characters
Akikusa Shintaro
The role of Shintaro was played by Ose Koichi. He appeared in all ten series of The Samurai, making his last appearance in the episode "The Duel" where he was last seen on a boat with his arch-rival Kongo of Koga presumably about to engage in a duel to the death out on the lake.
Akikusa Shintaro was the elder half-brother to the Shogun, Tokugawa Ienari. Shintaro's real name was Matsudaira Nobuchiyo. He acted to protect Ienari's position as the shogun because his half-brother was still in his minority. Shintaro posed as a ronin (masterless samurai) but was actually operating under instructions from Matsudaira Sadanobu. Shintaro was assisted by his faithful Iga ninja friend Tombei the Mist and also often accompanied by the boy Shusaku. Shintaro and Tombei fought against such ninja groups as the Koga and Fuma ninja, often employed by rebel daimyo lords who were working against the shogun.
Shintaro was chivalrous, loyal and behaved in a gentlemanly fashion towards women. He usually wore a kimono and had a pony-tail. He wore the two traditional swords of the samurai (the long katana and the short wakizashi). He was a master swordsman who though often surrounded by enemy ninjas would defeat them with swift, graceful and deadly swordsmanship. A familiar feature of the series involved attacking ninja crying out "Die Shintaro!" just before they leapt into battle. But invariably these would be their final words as they were duly dispatched by Shintaro's sword.
Tombei the Mist
Tombei the Mist (Japanese: Kiri no Tonbei) first appeared in the episode "Secret Mission to Kyoto" of the Series 3 (called Series 2 in the Siren DVD recent re-release). The character appeared with Shintaro in eight series culminating in the final episode of The Samurai, "The Duel". The role of Tombei the Mist was played by Fuyukichi Maki. Maki later reprised his role as Tombei in The New Samurai for three series with a new character, Kage Shinnosuke (replacing Shintaro), however it was not as successful as the original show.
Tombei was born in Hojiro, near the castle town of Iga-Ueno in Iga Province. Tombei was an Iga ninja and the faithful assistant of Akikusa Shintaro. In the series Shintaro and Tombei battled against enemy ninja groups, such as the Koga and Fuma ninja. Tombei wore a grey version of the ninja outfit (shinobi shozoku) that represented the Iga ninja in the TV series (as opposed to his black-clad ninja opponents). On his head he wore a traditional top knot but sometimes it would be covered by a grey ninja hood. He was skilled with shuriken (star-knives), swords (using the back-handed ninja technique) and scaling hooks. In the series Tombei would often be climbing across rooftops or stealthily creeping in the ceiling. He was always a loyal follower and friend to Shintaro and they saved each other's lives numerous times. However he did have somewhat of a reputation among fans for arriving late on the scene after Shintaro had just finished slaying some evil-doers.
Villains
The series had some memorable villains, especially those played by Bin Amatsu, including the imposing Kongo of Koga, the other-worldly Fuma Kotaro (a descendant of the famous 16th century ninja Fūma Kotarō) and Gensai the Wolf. Genkuro Momochi, played by Toshiyuki Katsuki, was another villain who had a genuinely menacing screen presence; as well as a prominent scar in the middle of his brow. The Negishi (Negoro) ninja leaders Garidoshi (played by Yoshio Yoshida) and Onime the Bat (a one-eyed evil-doer with a shuriken for an eye-patch) also projected an aura of menace.
Impact in Australia
Presumably responding to the increasing interest in Japan that accompanied the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a few episodes of The Samurai were screened by Channel 9, Sydney in early 1964. After this first screening Channel 9 took the unprecedented step of inviting viewers to write in if they wanted to see more. The result was one of the largest viewer responses in the station's history, with thousands of letters sent in requesting more episodes. The entire series was shown in Australia, though the storylines were presented out of their original sequence, as shown in Japan. This denied the Australian audience the intended effect of the mysterious, open-ended conclusion to the entire series. (The conclusion involves the main character and his arch-enemy, Fuma Kotaro, who has adopted the title Kongo of Koga by this point.)
By 1965 The Samurai was the TV hit of the year, becoming the most popular programme in TCN-9's (a Sydney commercial TV channel) history up to that time, surpassing even The Mickey Mouse Club. The popularity of the series in Australia can perhaps be partially explained by Australia's fascination with its former enemy Japan (the show screened less than twenty years after the end of World War II); even so the level of popularity it attained is remarkable given there was still much resentment of Japan in Australia at the time. One of the most notable features of the series was the often risible standard of the English dubbing with little attempt made to synchronise the English language soundtrack with the characters' lip movements. Strangely enough this very aspect of The Samurai is often cited by fans as one of its most endearing characteristics.[1]
The program proved so popular in Australia that a promoter brought out star Ose Koichi and a large supporting troupe from Japan to appear in a specially written 90-minute stage play based on the series, which played to capacity houses in both in Sydney and Melbourne, and it was reported that more people turned out to greet Ose Koichi when he arrived at Essendon Airport in Melbourne than greeted The Beatles when they visited there in June 1964. The success of The Samurai led Sydney TV channel ATN-7 to screen Phantom Agents, another Japanese ninja TV series but set in 1960s Japan. Phantom Agents developed its own cult following.
Whilst The Samurai was screened in some Australian markets as repeats in the early morning into the 1970s, in Adelaide, the series continued to be aired in the afternoon on NWS-9 at 5.30pm and 5.00pm, where it remained up until Friday 21 January 1972. On Monday 24 January 1972, it was replaced at 5.00pm by first-run episodes of The New Samurai, (its own "sequel" series but promoted merely as "The Samurai"), which was itself replaced 2 weeks later by Josie and the Pussycats. [2] With many still fond of the series more than 40 years later, Siren Visual released six series on DVD in Australia in 2002. In 2010 Siren Visual are releasing the complete 10 series of The Samurai on DVD for the first time. In 2009 SBS Television broadcast a documentary that reviewed the Australian impact of the series,[1] which has itself been released on commercial DVD.
References
- ^ a b "Shintaro". Shintaro!. SBS. 2009-11-04. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ Lannan, Kelly Patrick. (1977 ~ current) Base Koala TX Data Archives