Oshi samurai: Kiichi Hôgan

The following review is an extract from the book ""Lone Wolf and Cub": ...and other samurai stories from cinema and TV", which includes commentaries on this excellent "The Mute Samurai" series and is now available on Amazon. Highly recommended for all Chambara fans!

""Oshi samurai" (...) recalls in its approach the memorable Italo-Western "The Great Silence" by Sergio Corbucci. Kiichi Hogan, the mute ronin bounty hunter, is not only a skilled swordsman, but he also is very fast using his revolver. In fact, there are many similarities between the chambara and the Italian-style western. The two genres are quite similar, often telling extrapolated stories (which would work just as well in Tokugawa Japan as in the Wild West). And by the way, both genres are usually set in the same period (1860s and 1870s).

After the success of the Zatoichi saga (the blind masseur and expert swordsman who travels around 19th century Japan), actor Shintaro Katsu launched in 1973 a 26-episode TV series that would star his brother Tomisaburo Wakayama. This time, the main character would no longer be a blind vigilante... but a mute one: "Oshi Samurai".

Kiichi Hogan ("Demon Magistrate") is the name by which the ever-silent ronin is known. His father (Yanagida Toemon) was a shogunal official, an honest and incorruptible magistrate who opposed unscrupulous merchants and mercantile influence from abroad. For his tenacious fight against illegal and speculative transactions he was murdered by a Spanish merchant; a certain González. He raped Yanagida Kennosuke's girlfriend before his eyes, and then slit his throat, leaving him for dead. But Kennosuke (a.k.a. Kiichi Hogan) survived, although when his vocal cords were damaged he lost his ability to speak forever... Thus becoming the Oshi Samurai - the Mute Samurai, thirsty for revenge.

Since then, Kiichi wanders around Dai Nippon tirelessly looking for González, and meanwhile confronting all the thugs and corrupt people who cross his path. For just as the blind Zatoichi earned his living as a masseur, the mute Kiichi is a ruthless shokin kasegi - a bounty hunter. What they both have in common (besides suffering from a physical handicap) is the prodigious handling of the sword, which in the hands of both of them is drawn, struck and re-sheathed with the precision and speed of lightning.

"Oshi Samurai" is set (like Zatoichi) in the last years of the Shogunate, when Japan was shyly opening up to the world again. The story of Kiichi Hogan unfolds throughout the 1840's. (In later episodes, firearms appear frequently, and from about chapter 15 onwards Kiichi possesses a Western style revolver, which he uses with the same skill as his katana).

"Oshi Samurai", broadcasted on Japanese television between 1973 and 1974, was produced by Shintaro Katsu (interpreter of the unforgettable Zatoichi and "Hanzo the Razor"), who also directed the first chapter. Katsu also participates as an actor in the secondary role of the mysterious Manji, who follows Kiichi from the first chapter for a reason that will gradually become clearer.

In addition, Shintaro Katsu is the interpreter of the song that accompanies the credits (with music composed by Isao Tomita).

Tomisaburo Wakayama (who plays Ogami Itto in Kozure Okami and the quarrelsome Buddhist priest Shinkai in Gokuaku Bozu) gives life to the hieratic and imperturbable Kiichi Hogan, the shaven mute samurai. Like his brother Shintaro Katsu, a regular face in the jidaigekis of the 1960s and 1970s, Wakayama practiced martial arts to get into the roles he played. He trained in the disciplines of kendo and iaido, learning the handling of the katana, and was also a black belt in judo. He never used doubles in action scenes, nor during the shooting of fights and sword fighting.

The idea of making a chanbara television series about a mute samurai comes from Hideo Gosha (probably inspired by the Corbuccian "Il Grande Silenzio"). Gosha was a great director of the jidaigeki genre that has in his filmography excellent films such as "Sanbiki no samurai" a.k.a. "Three outlaw samurai" (1964), "Hitokiri" (1969) or the yakuza epos "Sussho Iwai" a.k.a. "The Wolves" (1971). In Hitokiri, Shintaro Katsu appears on screen with Yukio Mishima, the famous writer who a year later would practice seppuku and who participates in that film playing samurai Tanaka Shinbei.

Oshi Samurai's excellent soundtrack was composed by the famous Isao Tomita, a pioneer of electronic music with synthesizers and the ambient genre (especially space music, which evokes space travel and the reconditedness of the cosmos - so his compositions were often used for science fiction films). Tomita also created the music for the second part of the Goyokiba trilogy ("Hanzo the Razor: The Snare").

The atmosphere in Oshi samurai is as dark, violent and melancholic as in Sergio Leone's best westerns. The 26 chapters of the series (of an approximate duration of 45 minutes each) are related to each other (the main theme is the search for González), so it is not recommended to see them in a skipped way (as it is possible, for example in the case of Zatoichi).

In "Oshi Samurai", Tomisaburo Wakayama looks quite different as his other character Ogami Itto in "Lone Wolf and Cub". Ogami has long hair, gathered in the traditional samurai style, has very thick eyebrows and does not have a moustache. Kiichi, on the other hand, has very short hair (at first he has a shaved head), has a thin moustache, and almost always wears a big hat as a protection against the sun. It is very curious that a rear-view mirror has been installed in his hat, so that without turning around he can see the enemies behind him.

In addition to the huge hat, the bounty hunter's characteristic attire also includes a poncho and leather gloves, as well as a malas (Buddhist rosary) rolled up on the left wrist and a scarf on the neck that serves to hide the large scar. Two faithful animals often accompany the mute vigilante (and even play a vital role in more than one chapter): his black horse and his white dog.

A European series that is somewhat reminiscent of "Oshi Samurai" in style is the French-British "Crossbow" (about William Tell), shot from 1987 and first broadcast in Spain around 1993. In the TV version about the medieval adventures of the legendary Swiss crossbowman (played by Will Lyman), he also lives a different adventure in each chapter, facing the villain Gessler (Jeremy Clyde). The episodes of "William Tell", however, are much shorter, but the series is much longer than "Oshi Samurai", reaching several seasons. Just as the adventures of the mute bounty hunter have the fantastic soundtrack of Isao Tomita, the William Tell series also has great (and rather 80s) music, composed by Polish Stanislas Syrewicz.

Fans of the Lone Wolf & Cub series should get themselves a copy of this brilliant series from the early 70's. Oshi Samurai aka The Mute Samurai aka The Silent Samurai stars the peerless Tomisaburo Wakayama as the shaven-headed mute bounty hunter Kiichi(Demon)Hogan(Magistrate) seeking revenge on the Spanish swordsman Gonzales who murdered his father (the Nagasaki Magistrate responsible for foreign trade) & raped his fiancé. Having also cut the boy's throat, the Spaniard then vanished leaving the youth harbouring a burning desire for revenge- in order to defeat his enemy he had to become highly proficient with the sword. He used his skill with the sword to become a bounty hunter, an occupation that also allowed him to travel in search of his nemesis. This series follows his search for vengeance 18 years later. Unfortunately only 14 out of 26 episodes of this series are available with English subtitles & these are not even widely commercially available but on a positive note the swordplay is superb & despite having no dialogue Wakayama gives an excellent performance as the physically & mentally scarred Kiichi Hogan, who cuts a sinister figure with his cloak & straw hat. His gentleness with defenceless people & animals is contrasted with the ruthless slaying of anyone stupid enough to take him on with a sword. Other features of note are the cracking storyline, sinister incidental music & the theme over the end titles sung by Wakayama's brother Katsu Shintaro (of Zatoichi & Hanzo the Razor fame), who also makes an appearance as the mysterious stranger Manji (a Japanese swastika is his calling card). Like much of the Samurai genre, parallels can be drawn to contemporary spaghetti western cinema of the time, notably Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence featuring Jean Louis Trintignant as a mute bounty hunter.This is top quality stuff-Hopefully the rest of the series will be made available at some point. ***Additional 2011*** The whole series is now available..and it was well worth the wait. Incredible stuff.

Where did these men find the time to do this? In the middle of their other projects, Shintaro Katsu and his brother Tomisaburo Wakayama produced and starred in this incredible half-hour television series. Noted film directors Kenji Misumi and Hideo Gosha lend their talents as well. And finally Isao Tomita created a haunting soundtrack.

Shot in grainy 16mm (not unlike many other Japanese shows of the time) the atmosphere is intense and dark. The sword fights are about as brutal as anything in the Lone Wolf series but with less blood. Beautiful photography and acting from all the participants.

Fans of chambara films will notice that a few story lines were lifted from earlier Gosha works like "Samurai Wolf" and sticklers might be put off by Wakayama seeming to be too old for the part but this should not prevent anyone interested in the genre from seeing something that equals some of the best samurai films of all time.

Very, very recommended!