Abarenbo Shogun
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was a Japanese television program on the TV Asahi network. Set in the eighteenth century, it showed fictitious events in the life of Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun. The program started in 1978 under the title Yoshimune Hyobanki: Abarenbo Shogun (Chronicle in Praise of Yoshimune: The Bold Shogun). After a few seasons, it lost the first two words and ran for two decades under the shorter title until the series ended in 2003. (A two-hour special aired in 2004, and more might follow.) The earliest scripts occasionally featured historic events such as the establishment of firefighting companies of commoners in Edo, but eventually the series adopted a routine of strictly fiction.Along with Zenigata Heiji and Mito Komon, it ranks among the longest-running series in the jidaigeki genre. Like so many other jidaigeki, it falls in the category of kanzen-choaku, loosely, "rewarding good and punishing evil."
Repeating Characters
Regulars
Tokugawa Yoshimune
- Disguised as Tokuda Shinnosuke — Shin-san to his friends —, the third son of a hatamoto, the shogun roams freely about his capital, using the Megumi fire company as his base. The captain of the company knows his identity, but others are unaware that he is the shogun. Yoshimune-as-Shinnosuke is portrayed as the nearly invincible samurai warrior who seldom loses a fight no matter how many enemies opposing him there are.
- Actor Ken Matsudaira originated the role and played it for 25 years. He also sang some of the songs in the middle of episodes.
- Like Yoshimune, Tadasuke was a historical personage. Yoshimune appointed him to the position of Minami Machi Bugyō, one of the two chief administrators of Edo. In this office, he was mayor, police chief, judge and jury. He instituted and oversaw the operations of the commoners' fire companies. He also oversaw "City Hospital" (Koishikawa Yōjōsho, another Yoshimune innovation).
- Masashi Yokouchi played Tadasuke for nearly twenty years; Ryō Tamura replaced him in the closing seasons.
- The goyō toritsugi (or soba yōnin) was the person who scheduled appointments for the Shogun. He is generally a man of advanced years. In the first two casts, the character's name was Kanō Gorozaemon (played by the late comic Ichirō Arita). Next came Tanokura Magobei (Eiji Funakoshi), and a few followed in the cast changes of the last years of the show.
Fire captain
- Tatsugoro was the founder of the Megumi fire company and thus reported directly to Tadasuke. Enka singer Saburō Kitajima played in the series from beginning to end. Never one to shun a brawl for a righteous cause, this short, stocky character was altruistic to a fault, stubborn, and fiercely loyal to Yoshimune.
- Kitajima also sang the closing theme songs for several years.
- Later, Tatsugorō retired from the Megumi and assumed a different occupation; the writers of the series brought in Jōji Yamamoto, another singer (and a disciple of Kitajima) to play Chōjirō, the successor to Tatsugorō. In all, there were three captains during the series.
- Three actresses played Osai, the feisty wife of Tatsugoro. Later, when hen Tatsugorō left the fire company, the new captain Chōjirō married Obun, the young fishmonger/beat cop. The third captain was unmarried; his widowed sister Okyō was the lady of the Megumi.
- The cast always included half a dozen firefighters. While the roles were minor, together they were a prominent presence in the series. Character actors and comics played these parts.
- The fire companies were named with a single kana such as め followed by the word -gumi. The show featured the Me-gumi, whose auspicious name could also mean "blessing."
- In the first several years, a retired sumo wrestler named Ryūko was a member of the cast. He played a retired sumo wrestler named Ryūko, who was initially a guest of the captain. He later became a bone-setting doctor, and finally joined the crew of the fire company. Long after leaving the series, he made an appearance as a guest star.
- The show always had a male and a female oniwaban who acted as both spies and bodyguards for Yoshimune. A few of the actors and actresses have gone on to starring roles in other series. The talented actress Takashima Reiko is particularly well known. The original, Osono, was played by Natsuki Yoko. Her successor, Asaka Mayumi, is currently active.
- Genzō Wakayama narrated the show from the first episode to the last.
Semi-regulars
Tokugawa Muneharu- The historical Yoshimune came to power when the main line of succession to the Tokugawa shogunate came to an end. He was chosen from the second of the three cadet branches of the Tokugawa clan, and the head of the senior branch, Muneharu, was passed over. The television series frequently presented Muneharu as a rival who tried to assassinate Yoshimune and take over the shogunate. Even when he did not appear, many villains acted in his name, or planned to receive their reward from Muneharu when he became shogun.
- Yamada Asaemon, nicknamed Kubikiri Asa. An executioner for the shogunate, he quits and becomes a ronin and ally of Yoshimune. Asahi Kurizuka played the role in many episodes.
Guest stars
- Over the course of a quarter of a century, the show featured a parade of celebrities. Singers, actors, and athletes of all ages played various roles, in some cases including themselves: Ryūko appeared as a guest several years after leaving the regular cast. Hibari Misora, the famous singer, also appeared in the series. Former regular characters occasionally made guest appearances.
Stories
- The show was frequently topical, and touched on many themes of present-day life. The most common subject was political corruption, and at the end of about eight hundred episodes, Yoshimune, after defeating his inferior using the back of his sword, commanded his oniwaban to kill the corrupt official, that refused to harakiri. Many shows covered include topics of current interest such as drugs, unequal power relationships, poverty, urbanization, the generation gap, yakuza, prostitution, inflation, and the tension between Japanese and foreign knowledge.
Music
Shunsuke Kikuchi wrote the opening theme, which is popular as a ring tone. He also composed the incidental music. Saburo Kitajima sang the closing theme songs to various series. Late series omitted the closing theme, having instead introductory music by Kikuchi leading into an opening theme song sung by Kitajima.
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