Jidaigeki (時代劇?) is a
genre of
film,
television, and
theatre in
Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the
Edo period of
Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier —
Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late
Heian period — and the early
Meiji era is also a popular setting.
Jidaigeki show the lives of the
samurai, 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 sub group. They have a set of dramatic conventions including the use of makeup, language, catchphrases, and plotlines.
Types of jidaigeki
Actor Kotaro Satomi as Mito Kōmon
Many
jidaigeki take place in
Edo, the military capital. Others show the adventures of people wandering from place to place. The long-running television series
Zenigata Heiji and
Abarenbō Shōgun typify the Edo
jidaigeki.
Mito Kōmon, the fictitious story of the travels of the historical
daimyo Tokugawa Mitsukuni, and the
Zatoichi 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, the eighth
Tokugawa shogun. The head of the samurai class, Yoshimune assumes the disguise of a low-ranking
hatamoto, 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, working for the police, while Ichi (the title character of
Zatoichi), 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 the one of the only 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 era setting) is a
Japanese genre that has been used as the setting for
novels,
films,
video games, and even
anime and
manga. It bears some parallels with the
Western;
Akira Kurosawa's
Seven Samurai, for example, was remade in a Western setting as
The Magnificent Seven. The famous
anime and
manga series
InuYasha 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, and especially to foreigners. Here are a few.
Warriors
Main article:
Samurai cinemaThe warrior class included samurai, hereditary members in the military service of a daimyo or the shogun (themselves samurai).
Ronin, 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 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.
Ban'ya, Toei Uzumasa Studios
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 and
Buddhist temples 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.
Licensed quarter on a set at Toei Uzumasa Studios, Kyoto
Each daimyo maintained a residence in Edo, where he lived during
sankin kotai. 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 (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 moneylenders, itinerant singer/
shamisen-players, effete
courtiers from the
imperial capital at Kyoto, the
Dutch kapitan from
Nagasaki,
streetwalkers and
prostitutes from the
licensed and unlicensed quarters, the million-dollar
kabuki actor, flute-playing mendicant
komusos wearing deep wicker hats, and of course
geisha, 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 hairan 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 bares his tattooed shoulder and snarls,
Kono sakura fubuki o miwasureta to iwasane zo!: "I won't let you say you forgot this cherry-blossom blizzard!" After sentencing the criminals, he proclaims,
Kore ni te ikken rakuchaku: "Case closed."
The
kimarizerifu betrays the close connection between the
jidaigeki and the comic-book
superhero.
[citation needed]
Famous jidaigeki
For content set in (or largely in) the Edo period, see
Edo period in popular culture.
Films
Video games
Anime and manga
Live action television
Famous directors
Names are in Western order, with the surname after the given name.
Famous actors and actresses
Names are in Western order, with the
given name, then the
family name.
Influence
Star Wars creator
George Lucas has admitted to being inspired significantly by the period works of
Akira Kurosawa, 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 from this.
[1][2][3]
References
External links
