is a genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

 of film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, and theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 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 name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 of Japanese history

History of Japan

The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human...

, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell

Portrait of Hell

is a Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Shiro Toyoda and starring Tatsuya Nakadai and Kinnosuke Nakamura. It is based on the 1918 short story Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.-Plot summary:...

, for example, is set during the late Heian period

Heian period

The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...

—and the early Meiji era is also a popular setting. Jidaigeki show the lives of the samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants of their time. Jidaigeki films are sometimes referred to as chambara movies, a word meaning "sword fight", though chambara is really a subgroup. They have a set of dramatic conventions including the use of makeup, language, catchphrases, and plotlines.

Types of jidaigeki

Many jidaigeki take place in 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...

, the military capital. Others show the adventures of people wandering from place to place. The long-running television series Zenigata Heiji

Zenigata Heiji

is Japanese fictional character, the hero of a series of Japanese novels, films and TV programmes set in the Edo period of Japanese history. He is a policeman who catches criminals by throwing coins, the zeni of the title, thus Zenigata Heiji. The hero was created by novelist Kodō Nomura in 1937...

 and 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...

 typify the Edo jidaigeki. 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 fictitious story of the travels of the historical daimyo

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

 Tokugawa Mitsukuni

Tokugawa Mitsukuni

or was a prominent daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa and succeeded him, becoming the second daimyo of the Mito domain....

, and the Zatoichi

Zatoichi

is a fictional character featured in one of Japan's longest running series of films and a television series set in the Edo period. The character, a blind masseur and swordmaster, was created by novelist . This originally minor character was developed for the screen by Daiei Studios and actor...

 movies and television series, exemplify the traveling style.

Another way to categorize jidaigeki is according to the social status of the principal characters. The title character of Abarenbō Shogun is Tokugawa Yoshimune

Tokugawa Yoshimune

was the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu.-Lineage:...

, the eighth Tokugawa

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...

 shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

. The head of the samurai class, Yoshimune assumes the disguise of a low-ranking hatamoto

Hatamoto

A was a samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as gokenin. However, in the Edo period, hatamoto were the upper vassals of the Tokugawa...

, a samurai in the service of the shogun. Similarly, Mito Kōmon is the retired vice-shogun, masquerading as a merchant. In contrast, the coin-throwing Heiji of Zenigata Heiji is a commoner

Commoner

In British law, a commoner is someone who is neither the Sovereign nor a peer. Therefore, any member of the Royal Family who is not a peer, such as Prince Harry of Wales or Anne, Princess Royal, is a commoner, as is any member of a peer's family, including someone who holds only a courtesy title,...

, working for the police, while Ichi (the title character of Zatoichi

Zatoichi

is a fictional character featured in one of Japan's longest running series of films and a television series set in the Edo period. The character, a blind masseur and swordmaster, was created by novelist . This originally minor character was developed for the screen by Daiei Studios and actor...

), a blind masseur, is an outcast, as were many disabled people in that era. In fact, masseurs, who typically were at the bottom of the professional food chain, was one of the few vocational positions available to the blind in that era. Gokenin Zankurō is a samurai but, due to his low rank and income, he has to work extra jobs that higher-ranking samurai were unaccustomed to doing.

Whether the lead role is samurai or commoner, jidaigeki usually reach a climax in an immense sword fight just before the end. The title character of a series always wins, whether using a sword or a jutte (the device police used to trap, and sometimes to bend or break, an opponent's sword).

Sengoku-jidai

Sengoku-jidai (Warring States

Sengoku period

The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...

 era setting) is a 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...

ese genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

 that has been used as the setting for novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s, film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s, video games, and even anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 and manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

. It bears some parallels with the Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

; Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa

was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...

's Seven Samurai, for example, was remade in a Western setting as The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...

. The famous anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 and manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series InuYasha

InuYasha

, also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008...

 is set in this period despite some moments that were set in the modern era.

Roles in jidaigeki

Among the characters in jidaigeki are a parade of people with occupations unfamiliar to modern Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

, and especially to foreigners. Here are a few.

Warriors

The warrior class included samurai, hereditary members in the military service of a daimyo or the shogun (themselves samurai). Ronin

Ronin

A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....

, samurai without masters, were also warriors, and like samurai, wore two swords; they were, however, without inherited employment or status. Bugeisha were men, or in some stories women, who aimed to perfect their martial arts, often by traveling throughout the country. Ninja

Ninja

A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...

 were the secret service, specializing in stealth, the use of disguises, explosives, and concealed weapons.

Craftsmen

Craftsmen in jidaigeki included metalworkers (often abducted to mint counterfeit coins), bucket-makers, carpenters and plasterers, and makers of woodblock prints for art or newspapers.

Merchants

In addition to the owners of businesses large and small, the jidaigeki often portray the employees. The bantō was a high-ranking employee of a merchant, the tedai, a lower helper. Many merchants employed children, or kozō. Itinerant merchants included the organized medicine-sellers, vegetable-growers from outside the city, and peddlers at fairs outside temples and shrines. In contrast, the great brokers in rice, lumber and other commodities operated sprawling shops in the city.

Governments

In the highest ranks of the shogunate were the rojū. Below them were the wakadoshiyori, then the various bugyō or administrators, including the jisha bugyō (who administered temples and shrines), the kanjō bugyō (in charge of finances) and the two Edo machi bugyō. These last alternated by month as chief administrator of the city. Their role encompassed mayor, chief of police, and judge, and jury in criminal and civil matters.
The machi bugyō oversaw the police and fire departments. The police, or machikata, included the high-ranking yoriki and the dōshin below them; both were samurai. In jidaigeki, they often have full-time patrolmen, okappiki and shitappiki, who were commoners. (Historically, these people were irregulars, called to service only when necessary.) Zenigata Heiji is an okappiki. The police lived in barracks at Hatchōbori in Edo. They manned ban'ya, the watch-houses, throughout the metropolis. The jitte was the symbol of the police, from yoriki to shitappiki.

A separate police force handled matters involving samurai. The ōmetsuke were high-ranking officials in the shogunate; the metsuke and kachi-metsuke, lower-ranking police who could detain samurai. Yet another police force investigated arson-robberies, while Shinto shrines

Jinja (Shinto)

A Shinto shrine is a structure whose main purpose is to house one or more Shinto kami....

 and Buddhist temples

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 fell under the control of another authority. The feudal nature of Japan made these matters delicate, and jurisdictional disputes are common in jidaigeki.

Edo had three fire departments. The daimyo-bikeshi were in the service of designated daimyo; the jōbikeshi reported to the shogunate; while the machi-bikeshi, beginning under Yoshimune, were commoners under the administration of the machibugyō. Thus, even the fire companies have turf wars in the jidaigeki.

Each daimyo maintained a residence in Edo, where he lived during sankin kotai

Sankin kotai

was a policy of the shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to control the daimyo. In adopting the policy, the shogunate was continuing and refining similar policies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1635, a law required sankin kōtai, which was already an established...

. His wife and children remained there even while he was away from Edo, and the ladies-in-waiting often feature prominently in jidaigeki. A high-ranking samurai, the Edo-garō, oversaw the affairs in the daimyo's absence. In addition to a staff of samurai, the household included ashigaru

Ashigaru

The Japanese ashigaru were foot-soldiers of medieval Japan. The first known reference to ashigaru was in the 1300s, but it was during the Ashikaga Shogunate-Muromachi period that the use of ashigaru became prevalent by various warring factions.-Origins:Attempts were made in Japan by the Emperor...

 (lightly armed warrior-servants) and chūgen and yakko (servants often portrayed as flamboyant and crooked). Many daimyo employed doctors, goten'i; their counterpart in the shogun's household was the okuishi. Count on them to provide the poisons that kill and the potions that heal.

Other

The cast of a wandering jidaigeki encountered a similar setting in each han. There, the karō were the kuni-garō and the jōdai-garō. Tensions between them have provided plots for many stories.

What would a jidaigeki be without characters to give the flavor of the times? Jugglers, peddlers, fortune-tellers, candy-sellers, rag-pickers, blind

Blindness

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

 moneylender

Moneylender

A moneylender is a person or group who offers small personal loans at high rates of interest.-See also:* Microfinance - provision of financial services to low-income individuals....

s, itinerant singer/shamisen

Shamisen

The , also called is a three-stringed, Japanese musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually "shamisen" but sometimes "jamisen" when used as a suffix . -Construction:The shamisen is a plucked stringed instrument...

-players, effete courtier

Courtier

A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...

s from the imperial capital at Kyoto

Imperial Court in Kyoto

thumb|left|350px|Front view of Kyoto imperial palaceImperial Court in Kyoto was the nominal ruling government of Japan from 794 AD until the Meiji Era, in which the court was moved to Tokyo and integrated into the Meiji government....

, the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 kapitan from Nagasaki, streetwalkers

Street prostitution

Street prostitution is a form of prostitution in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, beaches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a...

 and prostitutes

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 from the licensed and unlicensed quarters, the million-dollar 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, flute-playing mendicant komuso

Komuso

A was a Japanese mendicant monk of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism, during the Edo period of 1600-1868. Komusō were characterised by the straw basket worn on the head, manifesting the absence of specific ego. They are also known for playing solo pieces on the shakuhachi...

s wearing deep wicker hats, and of course geisha

Geisha

, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...

, provide a never-ending pageant of old Japan.

Conventions

There are several dramatic conventions of jidaigeki:

• The heroes often wear eye makeup, and the villains often have disarranged hair.
• A contrived form of old-fashioned Japanese speech, using modern pronunciation and grammar with a high degree of formality and frequent archaisms.
• In long-running TV series, like Mito Kōmon and Zenigata Heiji, the lead and supporting actors sometimes change. This is done without any rationale for the change of appearance. The new actor simply appears in the place of the old one and the stories continue. This is similar to the James Bond film series.
• In a swordfight, when a large number of villains attacks the main character, they never attack at once. The main character first launches into a lengthy preamble detailing the crimes the villains have committed, at the end of which the villains then initiate hostilities. The villains charge singly or in pairs; the rest wait their turn to be dispatched and surround the main character until it is their turn to be easily defeated. Swordfights are the grand finale of the show and are conducted to specially crafted theme music for their duration.
• On television, even fatal sword cuts draw little blood, and often do not even cut through clothing. Villains are chopped down with deadly, yet completely invisible, sword blows. Despite this, blood or wounding may be shown for arrow wounds or knife cuts.
• On film, most often the violence is considerably stylized, sometimes to such a degree that sword cuts cause geysers of blood from wounds. Dismemberment and decapitation are common.

Clichés and catchphrases

Authors of jidaigeki work clichés into the dialog. Here are a few:

• Tonde hi ni iru natsu no mushi: Like bugs that fly into the fire in the summer (they will come to their destruction)

• Shishi shinchū no mushi: A wolf in sheep's clothing (literally, a parasite in the lion's body)

• Kaji to kenka wa Edo no hana: Fires and brawls are the flower of Edo

• Ōedo happyaku yachō: "The eight hundred neighborhoods of Edo"

• Tabi wa michizure: "Travel is who you take with you"

In addition, the authors of series invent their own clichés in the kimarizerifu (catchphrases) that the protagonist says at the same point in nearly every episode. In Mito Kōmon, in which the eponymous character disguises himself as a commoner, in the final swordfight, a sidekick invariably holds up an accessory bearing the shogunal crest and shouts, Hikae! Kono mondokoro ga me ni hairanu ka?: "Back! Can you not see this emblem?", revealing the identity of the hitherto unsuspected old man with a goatee beard. The villains then instantly surrender and beg forgiveness. Likewise, Tōyama no Kin-san

Toyama no Kin-san

is a popular character based on the historical Tōyama Kagemoto, a samurai and official of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo Period of Japanese history. In kabuki and kōdan, he was celebrated under his childhood name, Kinshirō, shortened to Kin-san. He was said to have left home as a young man,...

 bares his tattooed shoulder and snarls, Kono sakurafubuki o miwasureta to iwasane zo!: "I won't let you say you forgot this cherry-blossom blizzard!" After sentencing the criminals, he proclaims, Kore nite ikken rakuchaku: "Case closed."

The kimarizerifu betrays the close connection between the jidaigeki and the comic-book superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

.

Famous jidaigeki

For content set in (or largely in) the Edo period, see Edo period in popular culture

Edo period in popular culture

The Edo period of the history of Japan is the setting of many works of popular culture. These include novels, stage plays, films, television shows, animated works, manga, and video games. Major events of the period, such as the Siege of Osaka, Shimabara Rebellion, and the decline and fall of the...

.

Films

• 13 Assassins
• The Fall of Ako Castle
  The Fall of Ako Castle
  is a 1978 Japanese historical martial arts period film, directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It depicts the story of the Forty-seven Ronin...
  
  
• Gate of Hell
• G.I. Samurai
• Hanzo the Razor
• The Hidden Fortress
  The Hidden Fortress
  is a 1958 jidai-geki film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshirō Mifune as General and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki. A literal translation of the Japanese title is The Three Villains of the Hidden Fortress.-Plot:...
  
  
• Kagemusha
  Kagemusha
  is a 1980 film by Akira Kurosawa. The title is a term used for an impersonator. It is set in the Warring States era of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate a dying warlord in order to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable...
  
  
• Lady Snowblood
  Lady Snowblood (film)
  is a 1973 Japanese film directed by Toshiya Fujita and starring Meiko Kaji. It is based on the manga of the same name by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Kazuo Kamimura and follows the story of the eponymous assassin seeking vengeance upon the bandits who raped her mother and murdered her father.It...
  
  
• Onibaba
  Onibaba
  is a Japanese horror film based on a Buddhist parable. Directed by Kaneto Shindō, the film is set in rural Japan in the fourteenth century and features Nobuko Otowa and Jitsuko Yoshimura as a woman and her daughter-in-law who attack and kill passing samurai, strip them of their valuable armor and...
  
  
• Ran
  Ran (film)
  is a 1985 Japanese-French jidaigeki film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film starred Tatsuya Nakadai as Hidetora Ichimonji, an aging Sengoku-era warlord who decides to abdicate as ruler in favor of his three sons. It also stars Mieko Harada as the wife of Ichimonji's eldest son...
  
  
• Rashomon
  Rashomon (film)
  The bandit's storyTajōmaru, a notorious brigand , claims that he tricked the samurai to step off the mountain trail with him and look at a cache of ancient swords he discovered. In the grove he tied the samurai to a tree, then brought the woman there. She initially tried to defend herself with a...
  
  
• Samurai Banners
  Samurai Banners
  is a Japanese samurai drama film released in 1969. It was directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and is based on the life of the famous Sengoku-era battle strategist, Yamamoto Kansuke.- Plot :...
  
  
• Samurai Reincarnation
  Samurai Reincarnation
  Samurai Reincarnation is a 1981 film directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Sonny Chiba. The film was based on the novel Makai Tensho....
  
  
• Samurai Trilogy
  Samurai Trilogy
  The Samurai Trilogy is a film trilogy directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshirō Mifune as Musashi Miyamoto and Koji Tsuruta as Kojirō Sasaki...
  
  
• Samurai Wolf
• Sansho The Bailiff
  Sansho the Bailiff
  -External links:* at the Japanese Movie Database* * and QuickTime trailer* essay by Mark Le Fanu...
  
  
• Seven Samurai
• Shigurui
  Shigurui
  is a manga series written by Norio Nanjo and illustrated by Takayuki Yamaguchi, based on the first chapter of the novel Suruga-jō Gozen Jiai by Norio Nanjō....
  
  
• Shinobi No Mono
• Shogun's Samurai
  Shogun's Samurai
  also "Intrigue of the Yagyu clan" and "Yagyu Clan Conspiracy," is a 1978 Japanese historical martial arts period film, directed by Kinji Fukasaku. The film is one of a series of period films by Fukasaku starring Sonny Chiba as Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi....
  
  
• Shogun's Vault
• Throne of Blood
  Throne of Blood
  Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Its original Japanese title is Kumonosu-jō , which means "Spider Web Castle". The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth to feudal Japan.-Plot:...
  
  
• The Last Samurai
  The Last Samurai
  The Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...
  
  
• Shogun's Shadow
• Ugetsu Monogatari
• Yojimbo

Video games

• Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki dayo Zen'in Shūgō—sequel to Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (River City Ransom
  River City Ransom
  River City Ransom, released as in Japan and as Street Gangs in PAL regions, is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It was developed by Technōs Japan and originally released in Japan on April 25, 1989. It is the third game in Technos' Kunio-kun series released for the console,...
  
   in America) set in feudal Japan.
• Genji: Dawn of the Samurai
  Genji: Dawn of the Samurai
  Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is a PlayStation 2 game released on September 20, 2005. It is loosely based on The Tale of the Heike.A sequel, Genji: Days of the Blade was released for PlayStation 3.-Storyline:...
  
  
• Kengo series
  Kengo
  Kengo is the name of a series of video games developed by Genki. Kengo is considered a spiritual successor to the Bushido Blade game series for the PlayStation.-Kengo: Master of Bushido:...
  
  
• Onimusha series
• Samurai Shodown
  Samurai Shodown
  Samurai Shodown, known as in Japan, is a competitive fighting game produced by SNK for their Neo Geo arcade and home platform. In contrast to other fighting games at the time which were set in modern times and focused primarily on hand-to-hand combat, Samurai Shodown is set in feudal-era Japan ...
  
   series
• Sengoku Ace
• Shogun: Total War
  Shogun: Total War
  Shogun: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Electronic Arts. Released in June 2000, the game is the debut title in The Creative Assembly's Total War series...
  
  
• Soul of the Samurai
  Soul of the Samurai
  , is an action-adventure game by Konami, released in 1999 for the PlayStation.- Gameplay :From the start the player chooses to be either a young male ronin named Kotaro or a teenage girl ninja named Lin . From then on he or she travels through prerendered levels, killing enemies and fulfilling...
  
  
• Total War: Shogun 2
• Way of the Samurai Series
  Way of the Samurai
  Way of the Samurai is a PlayStation 2 action-adventure game released in 2002.Set in 19th Century Japan, the player takes on the role of a ronin who wanders into a remote village and becomes involved in a conflict between rival clans...
  
  

Anime and manga

• Basilisk
• Crescent Moon in the Warring States
  Crescent Moon in the Warring States
  is a manga written by Nobuhiro Watsuki back in his days as a manga artist assistant. It is his first professional work, which is indirectly set in the Rurouni Kenshin world. The story tells the tale of a former who has the same name as the Hiko Seijūrō in Rurouni Kenshin...
  
  
• Fire Tripper
  Fire Tripper
  is an anime OVA based on a manga story by Rumiko Takahashi. In North America, it was released on VHS by Central Park Media under the "Rumik World" series...
  
  
• InuYasha
  InuYasha
  , also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008...
  
  
• Kaze Hikaru
  Kaze Hikaru
  is a Japanese manga series by Taeko Watanabe.Kaze Hikaru is set in the bakumatsu. After her father and older brother are murdered, Tominaga Sei decides to pose as a boy named so that she can join the Mibu-Roshigumi and avenge their deaths...
  
  
• Ninja Scroll
  Ninja Scroll
  is a 1993 Japanese animated action thriller film set in feudal Japan, written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri who was best known for his previous thriller Wicked City . The character designs were done by Yutaka Minowa. The movie is in homage to the Ninpōchō series, ninja novels by Futaro Yamada...
  
  
• Otogizoshi
• Princess Mononoke
  Princess Mononoke
  is a 1997 epic Japanese animated historical fantasy feature film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. is not a name, but a general term in the Japanese language for a spirit or monster...
  
  
• Rakudai Ninja Rantarō
  Rakudai Ninja Rantaro
  is a comedy ninja manga series created by Sōbē Amako in 1986. The anime adaptation, Nintama Rantarō, began broadcasting on NHK in 1993 and a side-story anime film Eiga Nintama Rantarō premiered in 1996' several Nintama Rantarō video games were also published since 1995.- Plot :The series is set...
  
  
• Rurouni Kenshin
  Rurouni Kenshin
  , also known as Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The fictional setting takes place during the early Meiji period in Japan. The story is about a fictional assassin named Himura Kenshin, from the Bakumatsu who becomes a wanderer to...
  
  
• Samurai Champloo
  Samurai Champloo
  is a Japanese anime series created and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. It was broadcast in Japan from May 20, 2004 through March 19, 2005 on Fuji TV. Samurai Champloo has earned Watanabe a renowned title in the anime and Japanese television communities...
  
  
• Shounen Onmyouji
• The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls
  The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls
  is an 11-volume manga series written by Masaki Segawa and first published in Japan by Kodansha in 2005.Like Masaki Segawa's first manga Basilisk, The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls is based on a novel from Futaro Yamada's Ninpōchō series and can therefore be considered a sequel to Basilisk, especially as...
  
  
• Sword of the Stranger
  Sword of the Stranger
  is a 2007 Japanese anime feature film directed by Masahiro Andō and produced by Bones. The film follows Kotaro, a young boy who is hunted by the Ming from China for mysterious reasons. Among the Ming is a fearsome Western fighter named Luo-Lang, whose only desire is to find a worthy opponent...
  
  
• Samurai Deeper Kyo
  Samurai Deeper Kyo
  is a manga series written and illustrated by Akimine Kamijyo. The manga was serialized from October 15, 1999 to May 10, 2006 in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine, and collected over 38 volumes....
  
  
• Vagabond
  Vagabond (manga)
  is an ongoing manga by Takehiko Inoue, portraying a fictionalized account of Miyamoto Musashi's life, on a loose adaptation of Eiji Yoshikawa's novel Musashi....
  
  

Live action television

• Kamen No Ninja Akakage
• Lion Maru series
• Shadow Warriors (TV series)

Famous directors

Names are in Western order, with the surname after the given name.

• Kon Ichikawa
  Kon Ichikawa
  was a Japanese film director.-Early life and career:Ichikawa was born in Ise, Mie Prefecture. In the 1930s Ichikawa attended a technical school in Osaka. Upon graduation, in 1933, he found a job with a local rental film studio, J.O. Studio, in their animation department...
  
  
• Akira Kurosawa
  Akira Kurosawa
  was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
  
  
• Masaki Kobayashi
• Shozo Makino
• Kenji Mizoguchi
  Kenji Mizoguchi
  Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
  
  
• Kihachi Okamoto
  Kihachi Okamoto
  was a Japanese film director who has worked in several different genres, including jidaigeki.-Career:Born in Yonago, Okamoto attended Meiji University, but was drafted in 1943 and entered World War II during its most difficult hours, an experience that had a profound effect on his later film work,...
  
  
• Tomu Uchida
  Tomu Uchida
  was a Japanese film director. Tomu Uchida, whose name translates to “spit out dreams” is considered one of the less well known masters of Japanese cinema in the West, whose films are rarely screened and not widely available on DVD...
  
  

Famous actors and actresses

Names are in Western order, with the given name

Given name

A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...

, then the family name

Family name

A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...

.

• Kanjūrō Arashi
  Kanjūrō Arashi
  was a Japanese film actor. He entered the film industry in 1927 and came to fame playing Kurama Tengu, a character in the Bakumatsu era created by Jirō Osaragi in his novels. In the 1950s he portrayed the Emperor Meiji in several hit films and appeared in yakuza films in the 1960s...
  
  
• Tsumasaburō Bandō
  Tsumasaburo Bando
  was one of the most prominent Japanese actors of the twentieth century. Famous for his rebellious, sword fighting roles in many jidaigeki silent films, he rose to fame after joining the Tōjiin Studio of Makino Film Productions in Kyoto in 1923.-Early life:...
  
  
• Sonny Chiba
  Sonny Chiba
  , also known as Sonny Chiba, is a Japanese actor, singer, film producer, film director and martial artist.Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience.- Early life :Born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka,...
  
  
• Makoto Fujita
  Makoto Fujita
  , born Makoto Harada , was a Japanese actor. He was born in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, the son of silent-film actor Rintarō Fujima, and started his career as a comedian in 1952.-Acting Roles:...
  
  
• Utaemon Ichikawa
  Utaemon Ichikawa
  was a Japanese film actor famous for starring roles in jidaigeki from the 1920s to the 1960s. Trained in kabuki from childhood, he made his film debut in 1925 at Makino Film Productions under Shōzō Makino. Quickly gaining popularity, he followed the example of Makino stars such as Tsumasaburō Bandō...
  
  
• Kimiko Ikegami
  Kimiko Ikegami
  is a Japanese actress. Born in Manhattan, New York City, she moved to Kyoto at age 3. Kimiko graduated from Horikoshi High School in Nakano, Tokyo and subsequently attended Tamagawa University. She is closely related to the Bandō Mitsugorō kabuki actors: her grandfather was the eighth, her uncle...
  
  
• Chiezō Kataoka
  Chiezo Kataoka
  was a Japanese actor. Born in 1903 in Gunma Prefecture, he was raised in Tokyo. His first starring role in a film was in 1923. Specializing in jidaigeki, he played the lead in various films before and during World War II. After the war, he eventually joined Toei...
  
  
• Shintarō Katsu
  Shintaro Katsu
  , born Toshio Okumura was a Japanese actor, singer, producer, and director...
  
  
• Morio Kazama
  Morio Kazama
  is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 2nd Yokohama Film Festival for Shiki Natsuko and Yūgure made and at the 6th and 7th Japan Academy Prizes.-Filmography:...
  
  
• Kin'ya Kitaōji
  Kin'ya Kitaoji
  is a Japanese actor.-Early life:He was born in Kyoto, son of famous jidaigeki film star Ichikawa Utaemon, and graduated from Waseda University School of Letters, Arts and Sciences Ⅱ in Tokyo.-Acting career:...
  
  
• Hitomi Kuroki
  Hitomi Kuroki
  Hitomi Kuroki is a Japanese actress. Her real name is Shoko Ichiji née Egami ....
  
  
• Machiko Kyô
  Machiko Kyo
  is a Japanese actress whose film work occurred primarily during the 1950s. She rose to extraordinary domestic praise in Japan for her work in two of the greatest Japanese films of the 20th century, Akira Kurosawa's Rashōmon and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu.Machiko trained to be a dancer before...
  
  
• Ken Matsudaira
  Ken Matsudaira
  is a Japanese actor from Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan. His real name is Sueshichi Suzuki .- Career :Active both in television and on stage, he also sings. Matsudaira is most widely known for jidaigeki roles, having made his debut with Shintaro Katsu in an episode of the television series Zatoichi...
  
  
• Hiroki Matsukata
  Hiroki Matsukata
  , real name is a Japanese actor. He is the son of jidaigeki actor Jūshirō Konoe and actress Yaeko Mizukawa and has a younger brother Yūki Meguro who is also an actor....
  
  
• Keiko Matsuzaka
  Keiko Matsuzaka
  is an actress.Born in Ōta, Tokyo, her father was a naturalized South Korean while her mother was Japanese. Active as a child actress in the 1960s, she came into her own as an adult with Daiei, then in 1972 with Shochiku....
  
  
• Meiko Kaji
• 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...
  
  
• Yoshiko Mita
• Hiroaki Murakami
  Hiroaki Murakami
  is a Japanese actor. He specializes in jidaigeki roles, and has also taken parts in tokusatsu and modern productions.Born in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, he enrolled in Hosei University but withdrew when he successfully auditioned for a part in Kamen Rider. He made his debut as Tsukuba Hiroshi...
  
  
• Tatsuya Nakadai
  Tatsuya Nakadai
  is a Japanese leading film actor.He became a star after he was discovered working as a Tokyo shop clerk by filmmaker Masaki Kobayashi during the early 1950s...
  
  
• Nakamura Kichiemon II
  Nakamura Kichiemon II
  is a Japanese actor, kabuki performer and costume designer. He is a so-called Living National Treasure.Nakamura Kichiemon is a formal kabuki stage name. The actor's grandfather first appeared using the name in 1897; and Nakamura Kichiemon I continued to use this name until his death...
  
  
• Kō Nishimura
  Kô Nishimura
  was a Japanese actor who appeared in supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well and Yojimbo, Kihachi Okamoto's Sword of Doom, Yoshitaro Nomura's Zero Focus, and Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp .-Film:* The Burmese Harp *Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate（1957）*The...
  
  
• Denjirō Ōkōchi
  Denjirō Ōkōchi
  was a Japanese film actor most famous for starring roles in jidaigeki directed by such masters as Akira Kurosawa, Daisuke Itō, Sadao Yamanaka, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Hiroshi Inagaki and Masahiro Makino. His real name was Masuo Ōbe...
  
  
• Megumi Ōji
  Megumi Oji
  is a Japanese actress from Kakogawa in Hyōgo Prefecture. She is a graduate of Asia University.Megumi entered acting in 1989. She made her debut the following year in a commercial for Seibu Department Stores...
  
  
• Matsunosuke Onoe
  Matsunosuke Onoe
  , sometimes known as Medama no Matchan , was a Japanese actor. His birth name is Tsuruzo Nakamura. He is sometimes credited as Yukio Koki, Tamijaku Onoe, or Tsunusaburo Onoe, and as a kabuki artist he went by the name Tsurusaburo Onoe...
  
  
• 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....
  
  
• Masato Sakai
  Masato Sakai
  is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best actor at the 31st Yokohama Film Festival for Kuhio taisa and Nankyoku ryourinin and the award for best supporting actor at the 2008 Nikkan Sports Film Award, at the 33rd Hochi Film Award and at the 51st Blue Ribbon Awards...
  
  
• Hiroyuki Sanada
  Hiroyuki Sanada
  is a Japanese actor.-Life and career:Sanada was born in Tokyo. Originally aiming to be an action star, starting with shorinji kempo, he eventually took up Kyokushin kaikan Sanada began training at age 11 with actor and martial arts star Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club where he developed good...
  
  
• Kōichi Satō
  Koichi Sato
  is a Japanese actor.He is the son of veteran Japanese actor Rentarō Mikuni.-Films:*The Last Chushingura *Nobody to watch over me * Shonen Merikensack * The Magic Hour * Smile Seiya no Kiseki...
  
  
• Kōtarō Satomi
  Kotaro Satomi
  is a Japanese actor from the city of Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He appears in both contemporary and jidaigeki roles.-Selected filmography:Satomi has appeared in over 130 films...
  
  
• 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 ....
  
  
• Ryōtarō Sugi
  Ryotaro Sugi
  is a Japanese singer and actor. He was born in Kobe. He is the father of actor Jundai Yamada.Among Sugi's roles is a role in Sukima Kaze, which sold over a million copies. His acting credits include eighteen films...
  
  
• Yoshie Taira
  Yoshie Taira
  is a Japanese actress. She graduated from St. Margaret's Junior College in Suginami, Tokyo.From 1985 to 1999, she was a costar in the TBS prime-time television series Ōoka Echizen in the role of Yukie, the wife of Ōoka Tadasuke...
  
  
• Hideki Takahashi
  Hideki Takahashi
  is a Japanese actor. Born in Kisarazu, Chiba near Tokyo, he attended Ichikawa Gakuen and later Nihon University.- Filmography :He made his debut with Nikkatsu and acted in youth-oriented films. After becoming a star in television jidaigeki, he turned out hit after hit...
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• 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...
  
  , 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....
  
  , and 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...
  
   (the three Tamura brothers)
• Sanae Tsuchida
  Sanae Tsuchida
  is a Japanese actress. She was born on July 26, 1949, in Toyonaka, Osaka.In film, Tsuchida had a role in Kore ga Seishun Da! . In another modern role , she appeared in the Norifumi Suzuki film Torakku Yarō: Hōkyō Ichiban Hoshi. The year 1979 saw her in a film based on the television series she had...
  
  
• Eijirō Tōno
  Eijirô Tono
  was a Japanese actor who took supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Yojimbo , as well as Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story and An Autumn Afternoon ....
  
  
• 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....
  
  
• Tomisaburo Wakayama
  Tomisaburo Wakayama
  , born Masaru Okumura, was a Japanese actor, best known for playing Ogami Ittō, the scowling, 17th century ronin warrior in the six Lone Wolf and Cub samurai movies.-Biography:...
  
  
• Ken Watanabe
• Kinnosuke Yorozuya
• Kaoru Yumi
  Kaoru Yumi
  is a Japanese actress.-Biography:In junior high school, Kaoru joined the Nishino ballet group. She gained popularity with her appearance in the 1967 program Re Gaaruzu with Katsuko Kanai and Etsuko Nami in a mini-skirt number. In 1973, she did her first nude scene in the movie . In the same...
  
  

Influence

Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

 creator George Lucas

George Lucas

George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...

 has admitted to being inspired significantly by the period works of Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa

was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...

, and many thematic elements found in Star Wars bear the influence of Chanbara filmmaking. In an interview, Lucas has specifically cited the fact that he became acquainted with the term jidaigeki while in Japan, and it is widely assumed that he took inspiration for the term Jedi

Jedi

The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...

from this.

External links

• A Man, a Blade, an Empty Road: Postwar Samurai Film to 1970 by Allen White on Greencine, this article discusses specific chambara films, their distinction from regular jidai-geki, and the evolution of the genre.
• JIDAIGEKI RENAISSANCE PROJECT
• TOEI KYOTO STUDIO PARK