was a pair of television '' jidaigeki'' series on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Com ...

in Japan. The first aired in 1990–1991 and the sequel in 1992–1993. Kunihiko Mitamura portrayed

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third '' shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, ...

in both series. The show premiered on October 13, 1990, as an off-season replacement for the popular '' Abarenbo Shogun.'' It shared several cast members with ''Abarenbo Shogun'', including Reiko Takashima, Ayako Tanaka and some minor guest actors. The final episode aired on March 30, 1991. The sequel ran during the same months of 1992–1993.

Story

In 1634, the third

Tokugawa shogun The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia' ...

Iemitsu visited

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ...

in a lavish procession, accompanied by more than 300,000 followers. Bolitho, Harold. (1995). "The ''han''," in ''Warrior Rule in Japan'' (Marius Jansen, ed.), p.217. The premise of the television series is that he refused to ride in the palanquin. Instead, he walked in disguise as Tokuyama Takenoshin, a ronin. Accompanying him were Yagyū Jūbei, Isshin Tasuke, a pickpocket named Otsuta, and male and female

ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp ...

. Riding in the palanquin was a ''kagemusha'', an actor named Shinkichi. His entourage included Ōkubo Hikozaemon, Lady Kasuga, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, and various ladies-in-waiting. Going to Kyoto, the entourage followed the Tōkaidō. At various places along the way, a (fictional) half-brother of Iemitsu, Tsuzuki, attempted to assassinate him, with the assistance of Fūma ninja. The sequel, ''Shogun Iemitsu Shinobi Tabi Part II,'' depicts the return to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

. This time the group travels along the

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. There were 69 ...

, passing through territory that had recently been held by the Sanada clan. Takenoshin rescues a princess (Shizu, in disguise under the name Isuzu), who, viewers later learn, is a daughter of

Ishida Mitsunari Ishida Mitsunari (, 1559 – November 6, 1600) was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the ...

in league with Mugensai, formerly the chief ninja of the late

. Mugensai has lied to the princess in order to get her to assassinate Iemitsu.

Cast

* Kunihiko Mitamura as

disguised as Tokuyama Takenoshin *Korokke as Shinkichi *

Hisako Manda is a Japanese actress. She represented Japan at Miss Universe 1978 in Acapulco, Mexico, but did not advance to the semifinals. Selected filmography Film * ''Maison Ikkoku: Apartment Fantasy'' (1986) * ''Florence My Love'' (1991) * '' The Inu ...

as Otsuta *Toyokazu Minami as Isshin Tasuke * Hiroshi Katsuno as Yagyū Jūbei * Shigeru Kōyama as Ōkubo Hikozaemon * Ryō Tamura as Matsudaira Izu no Kami Nobutsuna (original series) * Reiko Takashima as Kaede, a lady-in-waiting (original series); Makiko Yamada (Part II) *Ayako Tanaka as Aya, a lady-in-waiting * Ken Nishida as Mugensai (Part II) *Yoshimi Ashikawa as Princess Shizu, disguised as Lady Isuzu (Part II) *Yuki Yukie as Kikue, her attendant *Kyōko Tsujisawa as Okaru, lead actress of the traveling company

Notes

References

* Jansen, Marius B. (1995). ''Warrior Rule in Japan.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN, 9780521482394
OCLC 422791897
:''This article includes material from'' 将軍家光忍び旅 (''Shōgun Iemitsu Shinobi Tabi'') ''in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on September 23, 2007.'' 1990 Japanese television series debuts 1993 Japanese television series endings Jidaigeki television series TV Asahi original programming Cultural depictions of Tokugawa Iemitsu