FAQ

It was explained in Adventures of Zatoichi that he became blind when he was 8-years old due to illness.

A yakuza is a Japanese gangster or can refer to a criminal organization with its own ritualistic code of honor.

His age isn't mentioned, but when we first meet him he appears to be in his late twenties or early thirties.

Zatoichi may not have a formal religion. He says that he prays to the sun goddess Amaterasu. He goes to a Shinto temple in Zatoichi's Pilgrimmage and vows to visit all 88 temples.

NOTE: There are some differences in Zatoichi's backstory in the long-running television series as compared to the movies. In the television series, he has more interactions with Buddhist and Shinto monks, and everyday religious activities.

Zatoichi works as a blind anima or masseur and bakuto or gambler. He learned his highly skilled swordsmanship of the Muraku-school of kenjutsu and laido as a young boy because he hated being made fun of and picked on. He has other sword skills that he picked up along the way and is also versed in Sumo wrestiling and kyujutsu or the ancient Japanese martial arts of the bow. He travels throughout towns and cities in Japan to make his living by giving massages, sometimes practicing acupuncture, or cho-han or playing dice. On occasion, he sings, dances, and plays the biwa lute or shamisen (made for blind women) or three-stringed Japanese musical instrument. He is a ever-wandering and sentimental drifter who helps others who are oppressed or exploited from the corrupt powerful yakuza, bad officials, and those of wealth and power. Zatoichi says that he did not intend to kill anyone when he started his journey and becomes introspective as he continues. He starts to develop his own code of ethics from that of a yakuza to one of expressing remorse and asking for forgiveness by the Shinto spirits. Due to his mass killings, he ends up with a very large bounty placed upon his head from the gangsters he fought, those whose family has been killed by him, and by officials. His sincerity, wit, empathy, strength, and skills, especially those of the sword, attract many people whom he meets in his travels and they grow to respect him. Women end up falling in love with him, but he cannot respond in kind because of his choices he made in life.

Zatoichi says his name is Ichi and sometimes uses Zato as a title. It is the lowest of the four official ranks within the Todoza or historic guild for blind men in Japan.