is a television dramatization of the events of the Forty-seven Ronin

Forty-seven Ronin

The revenge of the , also known as the Forty-seven Samurai, the Akō vendetta, or the took place in Japan at the start of the 18th century...

. The first episode aired on January 5, 1971, and the 52nd and final episode appeared on December 28 of the same year. The NET

TV Asahi

, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....

 network broadcast it in the Tuesday evening 9:00–9:56 prime-time slot 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...

.

The series featured an all-star cast. The central actor was Toshirō Mifune

Toshiro Mifune

Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...

, who portrayed Ōishi Kuranosuke

Oishi Yoshio

was the chamberlain of the Akō Domain in Harima Province , Japan . He is known as the leader of the Forty-seven Ronin in their 1702 vendetta and thus the hero of the Chūshingura...

; Yōko Tsukasa his wife; and kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 actor Onoe Kikugorō VII their son Chikara.

Ichikawa Chūsha VIII took the part of Kira Yoshinaka

Kira Yoshinaka

was a kōke . His court title was Kōzuke no suke. He is famous as the adversary of Asano Naganori in the events of the Forty-seven Ronin...

, but died after the filming of Episode 47; his brother Kodayū replaced him. Amada Toshiaki played his son, Uesugi Tsunanori, and Shūichi Ikeda

Shuichi Ikeda

is a veteran seiyū born on December 2, 1949 in Tokyo, Japan. Ikeda is married to Sakiko Tamagawa, although he was once married to Keiko Toda. He currently works for Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society...

 appeared as the young grandson Uesugi Yoshinori. Uesugi clan

Uesugi clan

The was a Japanese samurai clan, descended from the Fujiwara clan and particularly notable for their power in the Muromachi and Sengoku periods ....

 karō

KARO

KARO is a radio station licensed to serve Nyssa, Oregon, USA. The station is owned by the Educational Media Foundation.It broadcasts a Contemporary Christian music format as part of the Air 1 network.-History:...

Chisaka Hyōbu

Chisaka Takafusa

was a high-ranking samurai in Japan during the Edo period. He was a karō in the Yonezawa Domain under the Uesugi clan. He is also known as . Although he died prior to the events of the Forty-seven ronin, he appears in fictional accounts, including the 1971 Daichūshingura starring Toshirō Mifune...

, the co-lead role, went to Tetsuro Tamba

Tetsuro Tamba

was a Japanese actor.-Biography:Tamba is perhaps best known by Western audiences for his role as Tiger Tanaka in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice . By then, he had among other roles appeared in two films by director Masaki Kobayashi: Harakiri and Kwaidan...

. Takarazuka Revue

Takarazuka Revue

The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals, and sometimes stories adapted from shōjo manga and Japanese folktales. The troupe takes its name...

 star Noboru Kōzuki played the fictional Oran, a Yagyū undercover agent. Also on the Kira side was Gorō Mutsumi

Goro Mutsumi

is a Japanese actor with more than 25 films to his credit. He has also appeared in numerous television shows, especially jidaigeki, in which he specializes in villains, and in tokusatsu...

.

Among the ronin and their allies were Tetsuya Watari

Tetsuya Watari

is a Japanese stage, film, and television actor. He made his screen debut in 1964, in Isamu Kosugi's .He is now the president of Ishihara Promotion.He has a younger brother, Tsunehiko Watase, who is also an actor.-Filmography:-External links:* *...

 as Horibe Yasubei

Horibe Yasubei

was a warrior in Japan. Yasubei was born to Nakayama Yajiemon, a samurai of the Shibata Domain . When Yasubei was 13, his father lost his position and became a ronin. Soon afterwards, Yajiemon died, and with Yasubei's mother having died shortly after giving birth to Yasubei, Yasubei was orphaned...

, and Miyoko Akaza

Miyoko Akaza

Miyoko Akaza, is a Japanese actress. She is the wife of Toshiya Fujita.-Filmography:*"Libido" Sei no kigen *"Affair in the Snow" Juhyo no yoromeki *"A Tale of Peonies and Lanterns" Botan-dôrô...

 as his wife. Ichirō Arishima

Ichiro Arishima

was a Japanese comedian and actor. Nicknamed "The Japanese Chaplin," he is best known outside Japan for his appearance as Tako, the promoter of King Kong in King Kong vs. Godzilla ....

 played her (his adoptive) father Yahei. Tarō Ishida

Taro Ishida

' is a Japanese actor and seiyū from the city of Kyoto.-Career:Ishida is a chief priest at a Buddhist temple in Kanazawa, Ishikawa.Ishida is affiliated with Granpapa Production and his former stage name is '....

 appeared as Tominomori Sukeemon, Masakazu Tamura

Masakazu Tamura

is a Japanese film and theatre actor.-Profile:Masakazu Tamura was born 1 August 1943 in Kyoto, Japan to Japanese actor Tsumasaburō Bandō. His brothers Takahiro and Ryō are also actors...

 as the teen-aged Yatō Emonshichi, his brother Takahiro Tamura

Takahiro Tamura

Takahiro Tamura was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in 100 films between 1954 and 2005. He and his younger brothers Masakazu and Ryō were known as the three Tamura brothers...

 as Takada Gunbei (their brother Ryō Tamura

Ryo Tamura

is a Japanese actor from Kyoto. His father was silent-film star Tsumasaburo Bando. With his elder brothers, the late Takahiro and Masakazu, he is one of the Three Tamura Brothers. Another elder brother, Toshimaro, is active in show business as a manager....

 also appeared in the series), and Shinsuke Mikimoto

Shinsuke Mikimoto

was a Japanese actor. His credits include at least fifty films, as well as numerous television appearances, in a career that spanned several decades....

 as Ōtaka Gengo. Comedian Frankie Sakai

Frankie Sakai

was a Japanese comedian, actor, and musician.-Career:From his days at Keio University, Sakai worked as a jazz drummer at American Army camps during the Occupation of Japan, often doing comic routines with his music...

 played Akabane Genzō and Yukio Ninagawa

Yukio Ninagawa

is a Japanese theatre director, particularly known for his Japanese language productions of Shakespeare plays and Greek tragedies. He has directed Hamlet differently six times....

 Hazama Jūjirō. Gō Wakabayashi

Go Wakabayashi

is a Japanese film and television actor from Nagasaki.A graduate of Senshu University, Wakabayashi became a member of Shin Kokugeki, then Wakabayashi Promotions. Currently he is a member of Toho Entertainment....

 portrayed Maehara Isuke, and Akiji Kobayashi

Akiji Kobayashi

, sometimes credited as Shōji Kobayashi or Issei Mori, was a Japanese actor. He is best known in the West for portraying the role of Captain Mura in the 1966-1967 television series, Ultraman. Another notable television role was Tōbei Tachibana in the 1971 series, Kamen Rider...

 was Terasaka Kichiemon, the "47th ronin."

Many actors appeared as guest stars in only a few episodes. Among them were many known to audiences outside Japan. These included superstar Kinnosuke Nakamura as Wakisaka Awaji-no-kami, Matsumoto Kōshirō

Matsumoto Hakuo I

, born , was a Japanese Kabuki actor, regarded as the leading tachiyaku of the postwar decades; he also performed in a number of non-kabuki venues, including Western theatre and films...

, Shintaro Katsu

Shintaro Katsu

, born Toshio Okumura was a Japanese actor, singer, producer, and director...

, Takashi Shimura

Takashi Shimura

was a Japanese actor.He was born in Ikuno, Hyogo, Japan.His debut as actor was the film Akanishi Kakita and cast in the Kenji Mizoguchi's film Osaka Elegy ....

, Eiji Okada

Eiji Okada

Eiji Okada was a Japanese film actor. Okada served in the Japanese army during World War II, and was a miner and traveling salesman before becoming an actor....

, Yukiyo Toake

Yukiyo Toake

is a Japanese actress. She won the award for best actress at the 23rd Blue Ribbon Awards for Furueru Shita and at the 29th for Gray Sunset.-Filmography:*1974 - Tora-san's Lullaby*1980 - Furueru Shita*1983 - The Catch...

, Kinichi Hagimoto

Kinichi Hagimoto

is a Japanese comedian.He is active as a stage performer, emcee, and manager of the amateur Ibaraki Golden Golds of the Japanese Baseball Association ....

, Terumi Niki

Terumi Niki

is a Japanese actress from Tokyo. Since a child, she has been a member of the Japanese Theatrical Company Gekidan Wakakusa, of which she has joined in 1953...

, Masaaki Sakai

Masaaki Sakai

is a popular Japanese performer from Tokyo. He is best known to English-speaking audiences as the title star of the TV show Monkey.- Biography :...

, and Shinji Maki

Shinji Maki

is a Japanese comedian who plays the ukulele.- History :Shinji was born in Meguro, Tokyo on 26 September 1934. His real name is . His appearance in the live vaudevillian show, "Shirouto Yose" featuring amateur entertainers established his career as an independent comedian...

.

The series has been rerun during the more than 35 years that have passed since it was first aired. It is available in several DVD sets.

Source

This article incorporates material from 大忠臣蔵 (1971年 テレビドラマ) (Daichūshingura (1971 television drama)) in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on March 16, 2008.

External links

• "Dai Chûshingura" at IMDB
• 時代劇アワー:大忠臣蔵 Jidaigeki Hour: Daichūshingura at TV-Tokyo
• Jidaigeki Channel
• DVD announcement (includes English)