Zatoichi Musical Journey 1 (1962-1964)

Shintarô Katsu stars as Zatoichi, a blind masseuse, who wanders feudal Japan falling into various adventures. He loves to gamble, but has a soft spot for the victimized and helpless. Invariably he runs into the type of trouble that can only be solved with his cane sword. Shintarô's portrayal of the character is what is best about this series of films. It's honest, subtle and endearing. 'Course, the swordfighting is fun to watch, too; it is fast and vicious.

Spanning the years 1962 to 1973, twenty-five theatrical features were released. In 1974, the series was moved to the small screen and lasted four seasons, running a total of 100 episodes. In 1989, Shintarô Katsu returned to the role one final time for one last theatrical feature. In 2003, Takeshi Kitano directed and starred in Zatôichi, an homage to this great series. Here's a quick rundown of who's released what on DVD in the US: Home Vision Entertainment (now owned by Image Entertainment) has released theatrical features 1-13, 15 and 17-19; Animeigo has released theatrical features 16 and 20-25; Media Blasters has released the 1989 theatrical feature and is releasing the TV series in five-episode boxed sets; finally, Buena Vista Home Entertainment (owned by Disney) has released Kitano's 2003 adaptation on a double feature disc with Kitano's excellent 1993 yakuza actioner Sonatine. The rights to the 14th theatrical feature belong to Miramax/Disney, but oddly remains unreleased on DVD.

In June 1998, King Records in Japan released three chronological soundtrack CDs, now long out-of-print. I will eventually post all three. Unfortunately, I don't own the discs myself. Back in September 2004, "Binary Geisha" uploaded all three to Usenet newsgroup alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.soundtracks, in excellent quality. I've kept and included the original .nfo files from that posting. In case you need one, j.a.n.e. is the best .nfo reader I've found.

The most famous of the various composers that created music for this series must be Akira Ifukube, best known for his scores to various kaiju-eiga films, most notably the Godzilla series.

Check out the theatrical trailer for the eighth Zatoichi film, Fight, Zatoichi, Fight:



The cover scan above was taken from Larry Tuczynski's comprehensive Godzilla Monster Music site.

Zatoichi Musical Journey 1 (1962-1964)
1. Akira Ifukube - Suite (Main Title - Bitter Victory) (2:56)
2. Ichiro Saito - DB TOP (Daiei Logo Mark - Main Title - The Surface of the Toridegawa River) (1:20)
3. Ichiro Saito - DB3 (Nagisa no Yoshiro) (0:57)
4. Ichiro Saito - DB17 (Memories of Miki Hirate) (2:12)
5. Ichiro Saito - DB24 (Brothers of Fate) (0:59)
6. Ichiro Saito - DB33 (Enraged Zatouichi - Ending) (1:16)
7. Akira Ifukube - Suite (Daiei Logo Mark - Ending) (1:20)
8. Akira Ifukube - Suite (Daiei Logo Mark - Main Title) (1:37)
9. Akira Ifukube - DB TOP (Daiei Logo Mark) (0:13)
10. Akira Ifukube - DB2 (Main Title) (1:18)
11. Akira Ifukube - DB6 (Ichi and Omitsu, Part I) (2:47)
12. Akira Ifukube - DB7 (Drawn by the Palanquin) (0:58)
13. Akira Ifukube - DB14 (Ichi and Omitsu, Part II) (1:14)
14. Akira Ifukube - DB23 (The Doyama Gang Goes off to Battle) (1:26)
15. Akira Ifukube - DB27-1st Half (Zatoichi in Fight) (3:37)
16. Akira Ifukube - DB28 (Farewell - Ending) (1:30)
17. Ichiro Saito - DB TOP (Daiei Logo Mark - Main Title - Ichi's Nightmare) (2:36)
18. Ichiro Saito - DB5 (The Government Money Robbery) (2:03)
19. Ichiro Saito - DB15 (Chuji Kunisada and Zatoichi) (3:46)
20. Ichiro Saito - DB17 (Fight at Mount Akagi) (2:06)
21. Ichiro Saito - DB29 (Anger and Sadness) (0:47)
22. Ichiro Saito - DB31 (To the Execution Grounds - Zatoichi in Fight) (2:37)
23. Ichiro Saito - DB33 (Ichi and Ochiyo) (1:16)
24. Ichiro Saito - DB35 (Ending) (0:15)
25. Sei Ikeno - DB TOP (Daiei Logo Mark) (0:14)
26. Sei Ikeno - DB3 (Main Title) (0:55)
27. Sei Ikeno - DB4 (The Men Who Chase Zatoichi) (0:38)
28. Sei Ikeno - DB7 (Kindness at Every Turn) (2:11)
29. Sei Ikeno - DB31 (Zatoichi's Underwater Killing Technique) (2:09)
30. Sei Ikeno - DB41 (Leaving from Kajikazawa) (0:43)
31. Sei Ikeno - DB46 (Zatoichi's Flashing Sword) (3:54)
32. Sei Ikeno - DB49 (The Face of Carnage) (1:32)
33. Akira Ifukube - Suite (Main Title - Threesome at Night - Ending) (4:07)
34. Taichiro Kosugi - DB1 (Daiei Logo Mark - Main Title - The Kite) (1:43)
35. Taichiro Kosugi - DB9 (Con Game) (1:31)
36. Taichiro Kosugi - DB14 (Ichi and Osaki) (1:59)
37. Taichiro Kosugi - DB20 (Shinsuke and Osen) (1:58)
38. Taichiro Kosugi - DB34 (Zatoichi Vs. Yojimbo - Breaking Through the Checkpoint) (2:22)
39. Taichiro Kosugi - DB35 (Holy Sunrise - Ending) (1:22)

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