Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsmen a great and very long running Movie and TV series

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Zatoichi, The Blind swordsmen was a character created by the actor Shintoist Katsu and was based on a novel written by Kan Shimozawa about a blind masseur, and blademaster set in the late Edo period (1830 to 1840). The movie series was produced Daiei Studios (now Kadokawa Pictures). There where a total of 26 movies in the series (1962 to 1973, then 1989), There was also a TV series, none of which I have seen, from 1974 to 1979. These movies are very entertaining. When you watch them what strikes you is how much like a western they are. Zatoichi wonders into situations and runs afoul of the local gangsters, and in the process protects the innocent. There is also a "He rides off into the sunset" aspect as well. He is a master of the Muraku-school Kenjutsu and Iaido sword technique it is characterized by a back handed sword grasping style, a rapid draw slash and return to the sheath. This style parallels a western fast draw gunslinger.

All of these movies are available on Apple TV.
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I now have all 26 of the Zatoichi movies. In Movie # 8 1964 "Fight Zatoichi Fight. Ichi carries a baby boy back to his father after the child's mother is killed by thugs out to kill him, He feels responsible for this. The movie is the story of his 65 mile trek to the father's home. There is one scene out of many that is totally outrageous. Ichi is in a barn changing the babies diaper, from your point of view you can see these thugs sneaking around outside the barn. Thinking because he is blind and distracted changing the baby they can sneak up on him, huge mistake, in about 10 seconds he draws his "reed sword" kills 5 of them and has the sword back in it's sheath without out waking up the baby.
 
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Just a minor correction to the description:
the mentioned sword arts should be kenjutsu and iaido (not Laido).

(I used to be an iaido instructor after 23 years of practice)
 
Just a minor correction to the description:
the mentioned sword arts should be kenjutsu and iaido (not Laido).

(I used to be an iaido instructor after 23 years of practice)

Corrected, Thanks, It is weird switching between a virtual keyboard on an iPhone and a real keyboard on my PC it is messing with my typing.
 
I'm up to movie # 5 and am enjoying them all. I kind of liked the look of the earlier movies in black and white.
 
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