A lone guard trades his sword for a bamboo flute to hunt 4,000 stolen gold coins.
Four thousand gold coins were stolen from the vault of Nijo Castle in Kyoto, which were collected as a tax to the shogun. The guard of Nijo castle Asaka Keinosuke, disguised as a komuso monk, proceeds to investigate the theft, traces of thieves lead to Edo, where Asaka goes.
Acting
Utaemon Ichikawa's commanding stillness as the disguised komuso.
Cinematography
Atmospheric black-and-white Edo streets that breathe menace.
Direction
Sasaki's patient unraveling of conspiracy across two cities.
Director
Yasushi Sasaki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Utaemon Ichikawa was so synonymous with period roles that 'Utaemon' became shorthand for stoic samurai archetypes in Japanese cinema.
The komuso monks—wandering Zen practitioners with basket hats and shakuhachi flutes—were historically suspected as spies, making Asaka's disguise loaded with irony.
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