Edo o Kiru

Overview

Edo o Kiru or Slashing Edo was a popular jidaigeki on Japan's Tokyo Broadcasting System. During the decades from its September 24, 1973 premiere until the July 25, 1994 finale, 214 episodes aired. It lasted through eight series, with several casts and settings. It ran on Monday evenings in the 8:00 – 8:54 prime time slot, sponsored by National, and remains popular in reruns. The first series featured popular actor Takewaki Muga, a co-star in the network's program Ōoka Echizen, which alternated with Edo o Kiru in the same time slot. He played Hoshina Masayuki, half-brother of shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, masquerading as Azusa Ukon in a good-over-evil drama set in Edo. Also on the cast was Matsuzaka Keiko, who continued in the next several versions of the show. Versions two through six starred the popular actor/singer Saigo Teruhiko in the role of Toyama Kagemoto, or Tōyama no Kin-san, a samurai who lived among the commoners, to the point of having a huge sakura tattoo drawn on his shoulder, but later became chief administrator of Edo. In this version of the Kin-san story, Kinshiro lived in the house of the woman who had been his nursemaid, the proprietor of a fish-dealer. O-Yuki, pretending to be her daughter, is actually a daughter of Tokugawa Nariaki, daimyo of the Mito domain, and eventually marries Kin-san. Wearing a purple cloth over her head and face, and wielding a sword in the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū manner, she works outside the law to bring justice to the wicked. At her right hand is an employee at the shop, Jirokichi. The former Robin Hood-style thief Nezumi Kozō, he became an undercover agent for the Kin-san/O-Yuki team. Morishige Hisaya played Nariaki in special guest appearances.