Kozure Ōkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru / “Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance”

Japan, 1972

Director: Kenji Misumi

Main actors

Story

The Tokugawa Shogunate controls Japan tightly, but the intrigues between the various clans that share the power shake stability from time to time. To keep the situation under control, the Shogunate has set up several official bodies from Edo whose mission is to ensure that institutions function properly and that there is a balance between the clans. The role of the spies (now more often called secret agents), ninjas (or members of the elite corps) and the kaishakunin, the supreme executioner, are all subordinated to these state bodies. The mission of the latter is to assist the nobles who have been condemned by the shogun to commit the ritual suicide of seppuku, by cutting off their heads from a sharp slash to spare them the immense suffering involved in having to open their bellies.

Itto Ogami, a samurai of stale ancestry and an expert in the handling of the sword in the style of the Suio school (Suiō-ryū) holds the dignity of a kaishakunin at the beginning of this story. All dressed in white (the color of mourning in Japanese tradition), he solemnly performs his duties as an executioner by decapitating noblemen who have lost the grace of the Shogun. In the first scenes he even has to decapitate a child, a little prince who, guided by his desolate preceptor, squeezes a wooden sword against his belly to symbolically imitate the act of hara-kiri.

One night, while praying in the temple dedicated to those who died by his sword, Ogami hears a scream from his wife: Azami, his wife, has just been killed. A ninja commando flees the house after the crime has been committed. Little Daigoro, one year old, has survived. It’s certainly a settling of scores, thinks the kaishakunin. Itto Ogami swears to hunt down his wife’s killers.

The next morning, an official named Bizen Yagyu arrives with the intention of arresting Ogami. He is accused of having placed the emblem of the Shogunate in the temple of his house dedicated to the dead (which is bound to bring bad omen, for it implies that he wishes the Shogun dead). The three samurai who, according to Bizen, ordered the attack on his house the night before (killing his wife) and then committed seppuku, were followers of a daimyo who was executed by Ogami. These three nobles are allegedly accusing the court executioner of treason, for having placed the Tokugawa emblem on the death temple. But Ogami (who has never done such a thing) immediately suspects that something darker and more twisted is behind such infamous and false accusations…

To the amazement of the kaishakunin, the mon (emblem) of the Tokugawa is actually located in the Temple of Death on his property. Now Bizen has the “proof” he needs to arrest him. However, Ogami is convinced that everything is a conspiracy to sink him, conceived by the Ura-Yagyu (a faction of the Yagyu clan to which Inspector Bizen belongs, and which is commanded by his grandfather Retsudo). The Yagyu are rivals of the Ogami and aspire to the position of kaishakunin. That is why they have devised this perfidious ploy: Their aim is to get rid of the troublesome Itto Ogami so that one of their own can take his place.

Ogami is not willing to be caught. He fights to the death against Bizen’s men, killing them all (including finally Bizen himself).

What has been told so far is a flashback, which Ogami remembers as he wanders along the roads, being banished, and driving a wooden cart on which his son Daigoro is sitting. The former kaishakunin now seeks revenge on the Yagyu clan, especially their leader Retsudo. He seeks redress for the murder of his wife, for the vile false accusation, for the ignominious collusion that has made him an outcast. From being an official dignitary of the Shogunate, Itto Ogami has become a mercenary, a hired killer who travels around the country pushing a baby carriage. He is now known as Kozure Okami – Lone Wolf.

Along his way he meets samurai and ronins who recognize him, and who have “jobs” for him: to kill a powerful enemy, or to finish off someone who threatens this or that clan… A chamberlain decides to hire the services of the former executioner to liquidate four heartless individuals who in turn have plotted a conspiracy against his daimyo. To be absolutely certain that the man with the cart is indeed the former kaishakunin, the chamberlain asks two of his best men to attack him – only if he survives will he be the real Ogami Itto. While the man who seeks to hire him explains the plan, Ogami is attacked from behind, but at the speed of light he eliminates the two attackers without flinching or even turning his head. The astonished chamberlain is now sure: This man is indeed Ogami.

The hangman-mercenary and his little Daigoro are now on their way to fulfill the task at hand. On the way, they see some girls playing ball. This brings back memories of Itto, which we see as a flashback: When Ogami fell victim to the conspiracy and the dignity of kaishakunin was taken away from him, he put his one-year-old son up for election:

“Daigoro, your father has already chosen the path he is going to take. It is the path to hell. I will not surrender to the Shogun, but I will rebel; I will live as a fugitive and will not rest until I have avenged the affront the Yagyus have done to us. Now the time has come for you to choose: Here is a ball and here is a sword. If you choose the ball, I will send you to your mother. But if you choose the sword, you will come with me and together we will walk the path to hell. Surely you do not understand my words or what this all means, but in your veins flows the blood of the Ogami, let the blood choose for you. The ball or the sword, choose Daigoro! The little one crawls to the sword. His father (proud but gloomy as always) takes him in his arms and adds: “You have chosen the hardest path. You would have been happier with your mother…” Colosal!

Ogami also remembers how he refused to practice seppuku before the shogun’s envoys. The latter were liquidated by his katana, and the now ronin abandoned his property with his son Daigoro to become an outlaw. Earlier, the evil Retsudo (who gained for his clan the coveted position of kaishakunin) proposed that one of his own fight a duel against Ogami. But the Yagyu was eliminated, after which father and son left Edo. The score with Retsudo is still open, but for the moment, throughout his travels through Japan, Ogami will be involved in other adventures…

To fulfill his first mission as a mercenary, Ogami arrives in a village that has been taken over by brutal outlaws. The nobles that the Chamberlain has indicated as his targets will pass through there. The bandits confiscate Ogami’s sword and confine him and Daigoro to a house with other travelers who were passing through. Among them is a beautiful prostitute and thief named Osen (Tomoko Mayama). The exiled kaishakunin, cold as an iceberg, unflappable, does his best to go unnoticed. He does not allow himself to be provoked by the criminals (the most boastful and aggressive of which is a certain Monosuke) and remains quiet and introspective… He waits for his “clients” to arrive, those whom he must send to hell…

Commentary

Thus begins the story of Itto Ogami, the excellent six-film saga of “Lone Wolf and Cub”. Many years ago I already saw the whole hexalogy and it impacted me deeply, to the point of awakening in me a growing interest for Japan and its history, as well as for the martial arts (especially kendo and iaido, those related to the handling of the sword).

The greatness of the dialogues must be emphasized; some of clear Nietzschean (and Spartan) stamp and of an enormous depth: As the paternal speech, before mentioned, of Itto to his small Daigoro: “(…) for your veins flows the blood of the Ogami, let the blood be the one that chooses for you…”

This first part, like the next two, is directed by the famous Kenji Misumi, director of countless jidaigeki of the highest quality (including many of Zatoichi, my other favorite saga of the genre). Tomisaburo Wakayama shines by bringing to life the hieratic Ogami Itto. His brother Shintaro Katsu (the actor who gives life to Zatoichi) produced this movie.

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