Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (in Japanese Kozure Okami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru) is a Japanese film from 1972 directed by Kenji Misumi for Katsu Production; it was released in cinemas by the Toho studio. It is the first film adaptation of the manga Lone Wolf and Cub by the writer Kazuo Koike and the artist Goseki Kojima, which was published from 1970 to 1976. The main character is Ogami Itto, a wandering hired assassin accompanied by his small son Daigoro. In the source manga he holds the office of kogi kaishakunin, the shogun's executioner, who beheads at seppuku and enforces the shogun's will against the daimyo. His adversary is the Yagyu clan, headed by Yagyu Retsudo (played in the film by Yunosuke Ito). The fighting core of the film is sword fencing. Ogami is played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, the older brother of Shintaro Katsu, who practised judo from the age of thirteen, reached 4th dan, and for film roles went on to learn kenpo, iaido, kendo and bojutsu. The hero's style in the manga is called Suio-ryu, taken from a real classical fencing school. We have not been able to document that Wakayama trained in that school specifically for this film. With distribution earnings of 254.03 million yen, the film was the ninth highest-grossing Japanese film of 1972 and a sequel was decided on at once; Wakayama played Ogami in all six films of the series from 1972 to 1974. Roughly twelve minutes of this film, together with most of the second instalment, make up the American edit Shogun Assassin from 1980.

Martial arts in this work

Fact and fiction

Ogami Itto's style is called Suio-ryu in the manga. Kazuo Koike used it for the hero and only later learned that the school really exists; he then visited its seat, the Hekiunkan in Shizuoka, and paid it his respects. The real Suio-ryu is a classical school of Japanese swordsmanship focused on iaijutsu, which besides the sword teaches fighting with the staff, the naginata and the kusarigama, and close-combat techniques. Its founder is considered to be Mima Yoichizaemon Kagenobu, who established it around 1600; the school has 64 basic techniques and continues to this day under its 15th head, Katsuse Yoshimitsu Kagehira. The choreographer of the later television series trained in the school, and the latest series features its real kata. For the 1972 film we did not find such a connection in the sources; the hero's swordsmanship here thus bears the name of a real school without it being documented that it is based on its techniques.

People and martial arts

• Kenji MisumiDirector
• Tomisaburo WakayamaActor — as Ogami Itto· Suio-ryu Iai Kenpo (portrays the art on screen)