Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman

Zatoichi at first seems a harmless blind anma (masseur) and bakuto (gambler) who roams around the country, making his living by cho-han (playing dice) as well as giving massages, performing acupuncture and on occasion, singing and playing music; however, secretly, he is also very highly skilled in swordsmanship, specifically Muraku-school kenjutsu and iaido and is equally skilled in the more general sword skills of Japan, as well as Sumo wrestling and kyujutsu.

Little of his past is revealed other than that he lost his sight as a child when he was around two years old through an illness.

His father disappeared when he was about five years old, again for undisclosed reasons.

He is described by his kendo instructor as having practiced constantly and with extreme devotion when he was a pupil to develop his incredible swordsmanship.

Zatoichi says of himself that he became a yakuza (gangster) during those three years he spent training (which immediately precede the original The Tale of Zatoichi) and had killed many people then, something he later came to deeply regret.

Despite that moral re-assessment, his new perspective and remorse (and most often because of them), he usually has a bounty on his head from one source or another throughout the movies and series.

Unlike a bushi, he does not carry the traditional daisho or a katana, instead using a well-made shikomi-zue, as the use or possession of all fighting blades was strictly outlawed for non-samurai during the Edo period.

Shikomi-zue were generally straight-edged, lower-quality, unfolded-steel blades which could not compare with a regular or even inferior katana.

As a result, his canesword's first blade was broken by a bushi's katana in Zatoichi the Fugitive, but as revealed in Zatoichi's Cane Sword, his weapon's second blade (broken during the film) and also its third blade were especially forged at very great expense and with far more than the usual care, time and effort by master bladesmiths and were both of exceptional quality, superior to the swords of even most samurai.

At the beginning of Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, this 3rd blade (or another he just happens to possess) inexplicably breaks for no apparent reason whatsoever and is later sold to a blacksmith along with its hilt and scabbard.

Its replacement was not a shikomi-zue, but instead a joto of unrevealed origin that's like a short, thick bo staff, and which also soon breaks.

In the very next film, Zatoichi the Festival of Fire, he's once again using his original trademark canesword that had been sold to the smith (or one similarly carve-marked), outfitted with a new blade of unknown origin and quality.

The principal recurring thematic formula of these films and the television series is that of the ever-wandering and sentimental drifter who protects the innocent and the helpless from oppressive or warring yakuza gangs, stops the worst of general injustice or predation and aids the misfortunate, and often, through no real fault or choice of his own, can get set upon by ruffians or will stumble into harm's way.

Zatoichi's saga is essentially one of an earthy but basically good and wise man almost always trying to do the decent thing, to somehow redeem himself and perhaps atone for past failings.

Yet, he believes himself instead to be a stained, corrupted and evil man, irredeemable and undeserving of the love and respect that some show and rightly have for him.

This self-described "god of calamities" is routinely a magnet for troubles of one sort or another.

Death is his only constant companion, as he pragmatically doesn't allow other people, especially those he loves or thinks highly of, to get close and stay there for long - such would lead to eventual tragedy.

Death does seem, like a shadow, to actually follow an often reluctant Zatoichi almost everywhere he goes, and despite his mostly compassionate nature, killing truly does appear to indeed come entirely natural to him.

His lightning-fast fighting skill is incredible, with his sword-grip in inverse manner; this, combined with his unflappable steel-nerved wits in a fight, his keen ears, sense of smell and proprioception, all render him a frighteningly formidable adversary.

He is also quite capable with a traditional katana, as seen in Zatoichi's Vengeance and the bath house scene in Zatoichi and the Festival of Fire.

Similarly, he displays considerable skill using two swords simultaneously, in Musashi-like Nito Ichi style in Zatoichi and the Doomed Man.

Deadly dangerous with blades to an almost preternatural degree, he is fully capable (whether standing, sitting or lying down) of fighting and swiftly defeating multiple skilled opponents simultaneously.

A number of other standard scenarios are also repeated through the series: Zatoichi's winning of large amounts at gambling via his ability to hear whether the dice have fallen even or odd is a common theme, as is his catching loaded or substituted dice by the difference in their sound.

This frequently culminates in another set piece, Zatoichi's cutting the candles lighting the room and reducing it to pitch blackness, commonly accompanied by his tag line "Kurayami nara kocchi no mon da".

The character's name is actually Ichi.

Zato is a title, the lowest of the four official ranks within the Todoza, the historical guild for blind men.

(Thus zato also designates a blind person in Japanese slang.)

Ichi is therefore properly called Zato-no-Ichi ("Low-Ranking Blind Person Ichi", approximately), or Zatoichi for short.

Giving massages was a traditional occupation for the blind, as was playing the biwa or, for blind women (goze), the shamisen.

Being lesser Hinin (non-people), blind people and masseurs were among the very lowest of the low in social class, other than Eta or outright criminals ; they were generally considered wretches, beneath notice, no better than beggars or even the insane — especially during the Edo period — and it was also commonly thought that the blind were accursed, despicable, severely mentally disabled, deaf and sexually dangerous.

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