* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Three Outlaw Samurai (Sanbiki no Samurai)
三匹の侍
A serialised television jidaigeki broadcast on the Fuji Television network every Thursday at 8 p.m. from 1963 to 1969, running to six series. Tanba Tetsuro, Hira Mikijiro and Nagato Isamu played three masterless samurai, and the show reached a peak rating of 42 percent. By using the sound of vegetables being cut for sword strikes and dismantling the stylised choreography that preceded it, the series established a visceral new standard for screen swordplay. A film version, Hideo Gosha's directorial debut, opened on 13 May 1964.
Description
Overview
Sanbiki no Samurai is a serialised television jidaigeki broadcast on the Fuji Television network from 1963 to 1969, airing every Thursday from 8:00 to 8:56 p.m. Six series were produced and the show reached a peak rating of 42 percent. Its structure follows three masterless samurai with neither home nor lord, who take the side of farmers and vagrants wherever they go and cross swords with the magistrates and wealthy merchants who hold power.
The Three Ronin
In the first series, Tanba Tetsuro played Shiba Sakon, Hira Mikijiro played Kikyo Einosuke and Nagato Isamu played Sakura Kyojuro. Tanba appeared only in the first series; from the second onward Kato Go joined as Tachibana Ichinoshin, continuing alongside Hira and Nagato to the final series. Each man fights and behaves differently, so the show sets several archetypes of the swordsman side by side within a single work.
Innovations in Swordplay and Sound
The series' greatest legacy to Japanese period drama is the realism of its swordplay. Screen fighting until then largely inherited the stylised beauty of kabuki, but this production was the first to use the sound of vegetables being cut as the effect for a sword strike, bringing the visceral sense of a blade parting flesh onto the screen. It is also an early example of period drama using sound effects in earnest, and the technique was widely adopted by later television jidaigeki.
The Film Version and Hideo Gosha
After the first series concluded, a film version was co-produced by Shochiku and Samurai Productions and released theatrically on 13 May 1964. It was the directorial debut of Hideo Gosha, and the weight of the blade and the matter-of-fact violence that run through all his later work are already set in place here.
How the Sword Is Portrayed
The swords in this work are neither celebrated blades nor family heirlooms, but practical tools swung in order to survive. Chipped edges, blood shaken from the blade and the sound of steel leaving the scabbard are treated deliberately, establishing a way of seeing the sword as a weapon rather than an art object. Though it sits at the opposite pole from works that recount the provenance of famous blades, it remains a reference point for thinking on screen about how Japanese swords were actually used.
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This page is intended to introduce Japanese sword culture and is not affiliated with any of the works mentioned.