:Tange Sazen
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{nihongo|Tange Sazen|丹下 左膳|lead=yes|group=lower-alpha}} is a fictional swordsman featured in Japanese literature, cinema and TV. Originally a samurai member of the Sōma clan, he is attacked and mutilated, losing his right eye and right arm. He then begins to lead the life of a rōnin, using the pseudonym Sazen.{{cite web |url= https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%B9%E4%B8%8B%E5%B7%A6%E8%86%B3-563863|title=丹下 左膳|accessdate=2021-01-05|language=Japanese|publisher=kotobank}}
Development
Tange Sazen first appeared as a minor character in a newspaper serial by Fubō Hayashi, which ran from October 1927 to May 1928 in the Mainichi Shimbun. The story mainly concerned the exploits of Ōoka Echizen, but the strikingly dramatic illustrations of Tange made by Tomiya Oda, with a scar across his right eye and an empty right sleeve, so caught the imagination of the public that within a few months three silent films about Tange were produced by different companies.
As a result of the success of these films, Hayashi wrote a new serial, Tange Sazen, with Tange as the hero. This initially ran in the Mainichi Shimbun from June to October 1933, but internal strife at the newspaper led to the interruption of publication and the serial eventually resumed in the Yomiuri Shimbun from January 1934. In this story, Tange developed from the nihilistic character he had been in the first novel to a doughty fighter against injustice.
The continued popularity of the character led to the production of the successful title Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryō in 1935, directed by Sadao Yamanaka and starring Denjirō Ōkōchi as a comic Tange.
Ōkōchi is the actor most identified with Tange in the cinema, but many others have played the role. {{cite web |title=Tange Sazen: The Million Ryo Pot (Japan, 1935) |url=https://www.nippon-kino.net/tange-sazen-the-million-ryo-pot.html |access-date=18 Jun 2023 |website=Nippon-Kino |language=en}}
Film
= Silent films =
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Transcribed title ! Original title ! Main actor ! Director |
|---|
| 1928
| Shinban Ōoka seidan {{efn|Three-part film by {{interlanguage link|Toa Kinema|ja|東亜キネマ}}}}[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0201226 Shinban Ôoka seidan: zenpen: Suzukawa Genjûrô no maki] | 新版大岡政談
|
| 1928
| Shinban Ōoka seidan {{efn|Two-part film by {{interlanguage link|Makino Productions|ja|マキノ・プロダクション}}}} | 新版大岡政談
|
| 1928
| Shinban Ōoka seidan {{efn|Three-part film by Nikkatsu}} | 新版大岡政談 [https://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/12621.html 新版大岡政談 第一篇]
|
= Sound films starring Denjirō Ōkōchi =
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Transcribed title ! Original title ! Director |
|---|
| 1933
| Tange Sazen {{efn|Three-part sound film by Nikkatsu}} | 丹下左膳[https://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/13184.html 丹下左膳 第一篇]
| Daisuke Itō |
| 1934
| Tange Sazen II: Kengeki no maki [https://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/13223.html 丹下左膳 第二篇 剣戟の巻] | 丹下左膳 第二篇 剣戟の巻 | Daisuke Itō |
| 1935
| 丹下左膳余話 百萬両の壺 |
| 1936
| Tange Sazen: Nikkō no maki | 丹下左膳 日光の巻 |
| 1937
| Tange Sazen: Aizō maken hen | 丹下左膳 愛憎魔剣篇 | Kunio Watanabe |
| 1937
| Tange Sazen: Kanketsu hōkō | 丹下左膳 完結咆吼篇 | Kunio Watanabe |
| 1938
| Shinpen Tange Sazen: Yōtō hen | 新篇 丹下左膳 妖刀篇 | Kunio Watanabe |
| 1938
| Shinpen Tange Sazen: Hayate-hen | 新篇 丹下左膳 隻手篇 |
| 1939
| Shinpen Tange Sazen: Sekigan no maki | 新篇 丹下左膳 隻眼の巻 |
| 1939
| Shinpen Tange Sazen: Koiguruma no maki | 新篇 丹下左膳 恋車の巻 |
| 1953
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 |
| 1953
| Zoku Tange Sazen | 続丹下左膳 | Masahiro Makino |
| 1954
| Tange Sazen: Kokezaru no tsubo | 丹下左膳 こけ猿の壺 |
= Sound films starring other actors =
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Transcribed title ! Original title ! Main actor ! Director |
|---|
| 1936
| Tange Sazen: Kan'un hissatsu no maki | 丹下左膳 乾雲必殺の巻 | Masahiro Makino |
| 1936
| Tange Sazen: Konryū jubaku no maki | 丹下左膳 坤竜呪縛の巻 | Ryūnosuke Tsukigata | Masahiro Makino |
| 1952
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 |
| 1956
| Tange Sazen: Ken'un no maki | 丹下左膳 乾雲の巻 | Masahiro Makino |
| 1956
| Tange Sazen: Konryū no maki | 丹下左膳 坤竜の巻 | Michitarō Mizushima | Masahiro Makino |
| 1956
| Tange Sazen: Kanketsu-hen | 丹下左膳 完結篇 | Michitarō Mizushima | Masahiro Makino |
| 1958
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1959
| Tange Sazen: Dotō-hen | 丹下左膳 怒涛篇 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1960
| Tange Sazen: Mysterious Sword[https://mubi.com/films/tange-sazen-mysterious-sword TANGE SAZEN: MYSTERIOUS SWORD] | 丹下左膳 妖刀濡れ燕 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1961
| Tange Sazen: Nuretsubame ittōryū | 丹下左膳 濡れ燕一刀流 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1962
| Tange Sazen: Kan'unkonryū no maki | 丹下左膳 乾雲坤竜の巻 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Tai Katō |
| 1963
| Tange Sazen: Zankoku no kawa | 丹下左膳 |
| 1966
| Tange Sazen: Hien iaigiri | 丹下左膳 飛燕居合斬り |
| 2004
| Tange Sazen: Hyakuman ryō no tsubo | 丹下左膳 百万両の壺 |
= Female Sazen films =
There have also been made adaptations of Tange Sazen as a female character, known in Japanese as Onna Sazen (lit. Female Sazen or Lady Sazen).
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Transcribed title ! Original title ! Main actress ! Director |
|---|
| 1937
| Onna Sazen: Dai-ichi hen - yōka no maki | 女左膳 第一篇妖火の巻 |
| 1937
| Onna Sazen: Dai-ni hen - maken no maki | 女左膳 第二篇魔剣の巻 | Komako Hara | Nobuo Nakayama |
| 1950
| Onna Sazen: Tsubanari mutō-ryū no maki | 女左膳 鍔鳴無刀流の巻 | |
| 1968
| Lady Sazen and the Drenched Swallow Sword | 女左膳 濡れ燕片手斬り |
Television dramas
| class="wikitable" |
| Years
! Transcribed title ! Original title ! Main actor ! Notes |
|---|
| 1958–1959
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Episodes of {{nihongo foot|Yamaichi meisaku gekijō|山一名作劇場|group=lower-alpha}} |
| 1960
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Episodes of {{nihongo foot|Shinkokugeki Awā|新国劇アワー|group=lower-alpha}} |
| 1963–1964
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | |
| 1965–1966
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | |
| 1967–1968
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | |
| 1970
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | |
| 1971
| Tange Sazen to kushimaki o fuji | 丹下左膳と櫛巻きお藤 | Episodes of {{nihongo foot|Edo kōdan hana no Nihonbashi|江戸巷談 花の日本橋|group=lower-alpha}} |
| 1974
| Tange sazen: Kenkon-hen | 丹下左膳 乾坤篇 | |
| 1974
| Tange Sazen: Koke saru no tsubo-hen | 丹下左膳 こけ猿の壷篇 | Kōji Takahashi | |
| 1982
| Tange Sazen ken-fū! Hyaku man-ryō no tsubo | 丹下左膳 剣風!百万両の壺 | |
| 1990–1994
| Fujita Makoto no Tange Sazen | 藤田まことの丹下左膳 | Four TV specials |
| 2004
| Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | |
See also
- Baiken, a similar video game character influenced by the Lady Sazen films
- The One-Armed Swordsman, the first title in a Hong Kong film trilogy about a similar character
Explanatory notes
{{Notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=tange%20sazen&s=tt Sazen Tange search listing on the IMDB]
Category:Literary characters introduced in 1927
Category:Works originally published in Japanese newspapers