The snow yesterday (not so common these days, and comparatively light compared to much of the rest of the country) reminded me of this classic scene from the film, The Sword of Doom, one of the several versions of the multi-volume novel by Nakazato Kaizan, Daibosatsu Toge – Great Buddha Pass, but arguably the best. (The others do have their good points, though).
The sword master, Shimada Toranosuke, played here by Toshiro Mifune, (I have written his name the English way, but all the other names here are written surname first) is attacked mistakenly on his way back from a friend’s house. The attackers realise they have the wrong man, but make the mistake of pressing on with the attack regardless. This may be one of Mifune’s best appearances as a swordmaster (admittedly, the role is quite minor) but he plays it to perfection.
You can watch the clip here: https://www.dailymotion.com/
Mifune was a great actor, and he knew how to look the part, but if you want to see someone who actually knew how to use a sword, the same role was taken in two earlier versions of the same story (Sword in the Moonlight was the English title, I believe) by the veteran actor Tsukigata Ryunosuke (see the photos below), who had trained in a branch of the Shinkage Ryu, – the Jikishinkage Ryu was Shimada’s own school.
Although the main character of this story, Tsukue Ryunosuke, was fictional, Shimada Toranosuke was not. He was one of the strongest swordsmen of his day, and his lines about the connection between the sword and the mind are famous today in kendo dojo:
The sword is the mind;
If the mind is correct, the sword will be correct.
If the mind is not correct, the sword will not be correct.
He who would study the sword must first study the mind.
Mind – kokoro – while basically meaning ‘way of thinking’ also has connotations of attitude and an almost moral dimension, as indeed, is made clear by his final comment in this film clip: “a sword which is not correct is an evil sword.” This, of course, refers to the swordsman.
As well as his skills with the sword Shimada was known for his upright character. It is perhaps worth noting that the original target of the assassination in this scene was Kiyokawa Hachiro, who often gets short shrift from Shinsengumi fans but was known as a Confucian scholar as well as a swordsman and is considered by some to have suffered from bad press), and his companion for part of the journey (in a different palanquin) is the famous spearman Takahashi Deishu – also known for his extremely virtuous character and his skill with the spear – the two were, in fact, friends, and Kiyokawa was later assassinated after leaving Deishu’s house.
The leader of the assassins in this scene is Hijikata Toshizo, one of the more well-known and popular members of the Shinsengumi, and it is interesting how easily he is handled by Shimada, despite his reputation as ‘Demon Hijikata’.
Nakazato Kaizan was himself a man of some principle, refusing to join the pro-military writers’ group, Nihon Bungaku Hokoku-kai, during the war, and casting the Shinsengumi in an unflattering light is telling. Mind you, with a ‘hero’ like Tsukue Ryunosuke, you can tell there are going to be more than a few moral grey areas.
For interests sake, here is a (very) short excerpt from the novel just before Shimada is attacked in his palanquin. I hope it gives something of the flavour of Nakazato’s writing:
A swordmaster of the highest level naturally has powers far beyond the ordinary. On the way, Shimada Toranosuke felt a sudden suspicious presence, and though he had not expected that the Shinchogumi would send such elite troops, he readied for an attack, leaning against the back of the palanquin in preparation for a sword thrust to the space in front of him (where a passenger would normally sit).
By the time Hijikata called out to wait, he had already tied back his sleeves and dampened the mekugi of his beloved sword, forged by Saburo Shizu. When the attack came, he drew and cut with a single slash from under the sword that had pierced the empty space he had left, severing the leg of one of the black-clad swordsmen who had been waiting, and shot out.
Unfortunately, there’s not an awful lot of information on Shimada in English, although anyone who has played the fairly recent game Rise of the Ronin will probably be familiar with him (and all the others mentioned above).
Alas, games are not one of the things I have time for these days, but I must admit I learnt a lot from them way back when – of course, it was all pen and paper in those days.
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