was a network prime-time television jidaigeki

Jidaigeki

is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular...

series in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 from 1991 to 1994. It starred Teruhiko Saigō

Teruhiko Saigo

is a Japanese singer and actor. As a singer, he is known as one of the three "Gosanke", referring to gosanke, the three great Tokugawa houses....

.

The series began in 1991 in the 9:00 p.m. time slot on the TV Tokyo

TV Tokyo

is a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...

 network. Saigō created the role of Tōdō Heihachirō. The character was a , a law-enforcement official of the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

, with broad jurisdiction over the Kantō region

Kanto region

The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....

 surrounding the shogunal capital at Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

. A common alternative name for the post was Hasshū-mawari, alluding to the eight provinces (hasshū) of the region; the title incorporates this name. He traveled incognito, investigating the places he visited, and donned white costume for the finale, where he killed all the wrongdoers.

The cast included many other widely known entertainers. Jun'ichi Nitta had a repeating role as a doctor on Abarenbō Shōgun

Abarenbo Shogun

is a Japanese television program on the TV Asahi network. Set in the eighteenth century, it showed fictitious events in the life of Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun. The program started in 1978 under the title Yoshimune Hyōbanki: Abarenbō Shōgun...

and appeared in Ultraman Dyna

Ultraman Dyna

is a Japanese tokusatsu TV show which aired between September 6, 1997 to August 29, 1998. The series is a direct sequel to the previous Ultraman series, Ultraman Tiga.-Plot:...

, Mito Kōmon

Mito Kōmon

is a Japanese jidaigeki or period drama that has been on prime-time television since 1969. The title character is the historic Tokugawa Mitsukuni, former vice-shogun and retired second daimyo of the Mito domain...

, the NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

 Taiga drama

Taiga drama

is the name NHK gives to the annual, year-long historical fiction television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white Hana no Shōgai, starring kabuki actor Onoe Shōroku and Takarazuka star Awashima Chikage, the network has hired a producer, director, writer, music...

Dokuganryū Masamune, Chōshichirō Edo Nikki

Choshichiro Edo Nikki

or Chōshichirō's Edo Diaries was a long-running prime-time television series in Japan. The title character was Matsudaira Chōshichirō Nagayori, the son of Tokugawa Tadanaga. The premise of the show focuses on Tadanaga having been killed because of alleged plotting to overthrow his elder brother,...

and other television series. Yoko Natsuki

Yoko Natsuki

is an actress, born 24 October 1952 in Ise, Mie Prefecture, Japan. She began to start her career on the movie, it was Karate for Life at 1977. One of her television roles was Osono, a ninja in the jidaigeki series Yoshimune Hyōbanki: Abarenbō Shōgun. She was also a regular star in Abare Hasshū Goyō...

 was a regular member of the original cast of Abarenbō Shōgun. Beat Kiyoshi is an owarai

Owarai

is a broad word used to describe Japanese comedy as seen on television. The word owarai is the honorific form of the word warai, meaning "a laugh" or "a smile". Owarai is most common on Japanese variety shows and the comedians are referred to as owarai geinin or owarai tarento...

comic, formerly partner of Beat Takeshi

Takeshi Kitano

is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...

. Tetsuo Kurata

Tetsuo Kurata

is a Japanese television, stage and film actor and administrator, best known for portraying Kotaro Minami, the main character in the tokusatsu television series Kamen Rider Black and its sequel, Kamen Rider Black RX. At the age of 19 he made his acting debut in Black, and has since appeared in many...

 is known for his role in Kamen Rider Black

Kamen Rider Black

, translated as Masked Rider Black, is a tokusatsu superhero television series. It is the eighth installment in the famous Kamen Rider Series of tokusatsu shows. It is a joint collaboration between Ishinomori Productions and Toei, and aired on the Mainichi Broadcasting System and the Tokyo...

and other tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....

productions. Daijirō Tsutsumi has risen to prominence in guest roles, and has had other regular parts. He joined the fire-fighting company as a bookkeeper in Abarenbō Shōgun, and portrays shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

was the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the younger brother of Tokugawa Ietsuna, thus making him the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu....

 on Mito Kōmon. Reiko Takashima

Reiko Takashima

Reiko Takashima is a Japanese actress.Active in television series, movies, and commercials, her roles have included ninja in jidaigeki such as Abarembō Shōgun and Abare Hasshū Goyō Tabi, the wife Oeyo of the shogun Tokugawa Hidetada, Lady Fujitsubo in a special with characters based on The Tale of...

 has starred in many jidaigeki and present-day series. Raita Ryū, who played the bounty-hunter Yamasaki Tetsunosuke, has dozens of supporting and guest-star roles to his credit. Among them are Amari Torayasu

Amari Torayasu

was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period, and served the Takeda clan under Takeda Nobutora and Shingen. Amari was a shukurō, or clan elder, following Shingen's accession to family headship and was one of Takeda Shingen's twenty-four generals. He was killed in action at the battle of Uedahara in...

 in the 2007 taiga drama Fūrin Kazan

Furin Kazan (Taiga drama)

was the 46th NHK Taiga drama beginning on January 7, 2007. It was aired throughout 2007.The four characters from left to right are wind, woods, fire, and mountain. The title is a reference to the war banner used by Takeda Shingen, which in turn was taken from Sun Tzu's The Art of War...

.

The series was produced by TV Tokyo and Union Motion Picture. Shunsuke Kikuchi

Shunsuke Kikuchi

is a prolific Japanese composer from Hirosaki. He specializes in incidental music for media such as television and film.Active since the early 60s, he has been one of Japan's most highly demanded film and TV composers, working principally on tokusatsu and anime productions for children, as well as...

 wrote the music for the show, and Saigō sang the theme songs.

The series has been rebroadcast many times. The first series of Abare Hasshū Goyō Tabi is available on DVD. The Jidaigeki Channel distributed it via satellite and cable in September 2008.

The production was in color. Episodes lasted 45 minutes within the time slot. TV Tokyo regularly broadcasts jidaigeki in the Friday 9:00–9:54 time slot.

Source

This article includes material translated from あばれ八州御用旅 in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on July 21, 2008.