[YouTube] "Kutsukake Tokijiro: A Lone Wanderer" Now Streaming - John Rawls and Shin Hasegawa's "Ninkyo-do"

To promote the new period film "The Legend & Butterfly" starring Takuya Kimura, the Toei YouTube official channel is currently streaming "Kutsukake Tokijiro: A Lone Wanderer" (1966).

"Kutsukake Tokijiro," based on the original work by Shin Hasegawa, was an extremely famous story that everyone knew before the war, but it lost popularity after the war. It is a representative work of the so-called 'matatabi-mono' (traveling gambler) genre.

An assassin feels sympathy for the family of his target and eventually ends up risking his life to protect them.

It is a film that serves as the origin of the "assassin-turned-protector" trope, which continues to be produced all over the world today.

<Synopsis>

The setting is a post town on the Nakasendo road.

The Kanzo family and the Gonroku family are in conflict.

Tokijiro (Kinnosuke Nakamura), a gambler who has been looked after by the Gonroku family, kills Sanzo (Chiyonosuke Azuma) of the Kanzo family to repay the debt of "one night's lodging and one meal."

On his deathbed, Sanzo, impressed by Tokijiro's character, begs him, "Please take my wife Okinu (Junko Ikeuchi) and my son Tarokichi to Kumagaya, where their relatives live."

Tokijiro takes Okinu and Tarokichi to Kumagaya, but the relatives they were counting on have already passed away.

Tokijiro and Okinu are drawn to each other during their journey, but they cannot express it. Okinu cannot reconcile her feelings for Tokijiro, who killed her husband.

Tokijiro invites Okinu to come to his hometown of Kutsukake, but Okinu suddenly disappears with her son.

Unable to forget Okinu, Tokijiro wanders the Nakasendo road and eventually encounters the mother and son again by chance, but Okinu has been struck by illness and has little time left to live...

I do not know if there is an even older original version of this story.

At the very least, for Shin Hasegawa, there was a model for this story close to home.

"When Shin Hasegawa was a child, a laborer named Toku, who was accompanied by a pregnant woman, happened to frequent his shop. The woman was the wife of a friend, and when the friend was dying, he asked Toku to take care of his wife and the child in her womb, and they made a firm promise. They lived together after that, but their relationship remained pure. The things he saw and heard at that time became the basis for what would later become 'Kutsukake Tokijiro'."
(Tetsuo Yamaori, "Giri and Ninjo: Shin Hasegawa and the Heart of the Japanese")

What Complements "Bushido"

This film is said to depict "Ninkyo-do" (the chivalrous way).

A while ago, I wrote about the idea of "Liberal Bushido" on note.

It was a discussion suggesting that Japanese people do not need foreign ideologies, and that we could get by if we just made Bushido a little more liberal.

However, in reality, Bushido alone is not enough.

It is "Ninkyo-do" that complements what is missing.

I had intended to write a major thesis on the theme of "Bushido and Ninkyo-do."

However, I was disappointed to learn that someone had already written on the same theme.

It is Tadao Sato's "On Shin Hasegawa" (1975).

At the beginning of this book, Sato compares Bushido and Ninkyo-do as "two paths of loyalty."

He then defines the characteristics of the "Ninkyo-do" depicted in Shin Hasegawa's works with the phrase "indebtedness to the weak."

A Gaze Toward the "Weak"

Bushido is fundamentally an ideology of the ruling class, the elite, known as the samurai.

There, independence, self-determination, and self-responsibility become the ethics for living.

However, the "Ninkyo-do" depicted by Shin Hasegawa is the ethics of those at the very bottom of society.

There, the weak, while maintaining pride in one another, are bound together by "jo" (human emotion) and rely on each other.

In terms of "duty and humanity," Bushido places emphasis on "duty," whereas Ninkyo-do prioritizes "humanity."

For the social classes that benefit from the contract of "duty," things are fine. However, there are classes that only suffer from the contract of "duty," or cannot even secure such a contract. That is the world of "Ninkyo-do."

A 'matatabi' (wandering gambler) is, so to speak, a homeless person on the road.

It is this "humanity" of "Ninkyo-do" that complements the coldness of "Bushido" as an elite ethic.

Here, I am reminded of John Rawls's "Difference Principle."

The "Difference Principle" is the principle that "only those social and economic inequalities that are to the benefit of the least advantaged members of society are permitted."only those social and economic inequalities that are to the benefit of the least advantaged members of society are permitted. In other words, we do not reject all inequalities in income and wealth, but rather acknowledge certain parts. According to Rawls's principle, the standard for this is whether or not it benefits those at the very bottom. (Definition found via Google)

Even within liberalism theory, Rawls's "A Theory of Justice" is popular among those on the left, if you will, because of its focus on those at the very bottom.

In fact, I believe that "Ninkyo-do," which is based on a "sense of debt to the weak," contains the seeds of socialism.

Differences from Yakuza films

Dramas arising from the "obligation of a night's lodging and a meal" are a staple of Yakuza films.

I have previously written about "Jinsei Gekijo: Hishakaku," which was shown on the same Toei Channel, as the origin of this.

However, both Shiro Ozaki, who wrote "Jinsei Gekijo," and Ashihei Hino, who wrote "Flower and Dragon," were privileged compared to Shin Hasegawa, and their world of "Ninkyo" is also idealistic.

Both Shiro Ozaki and Ashihei Hino were Waseda University students. Shin Hasegawa did not even finish elementary school. He was truly from the bottom of society.

Therefore, for Shin Hasegawa, Ninkyo-do was not so much a "sense of debt to the weak" as it was simply a depiction of the world he had lived in.

The inheritance of Ninkyo-do

This film, "Kutsukake Tokijiro: Lone Wanderer" (1966) directed by Tai Kato, is one of the later films based on the works of Shin Hasegawa, but since it was produced while Toei was heavily invested in the yakuza genre, it carries a distinct yakuza-film aesthetic.

Even so, as the presenter, director Keishi Otomo, says, it is "incredibly emotional," and the direction, which leans heavily into "humanity" over "duty and humanity," still radiates a unique character that sets it apart from other yakuza films.

While the appearance of Tokijiro and Okinu is perhaps too polished, lacking a sense of being at the "very bottom" of society, the film still meticulously depicts the exchange of "affection" among the poor, staying true to the essence of Shin Hasegawa's work.

Toward the end, Tokijiro and a farmer who wants to become a yakuza get into an argument. When Tokijiro says, "Yakuza are nothing but insects," the farmer replies, "Farmers are the ones who are insects." This "struggle at the bottom" reveals a worldview of chivalry that differs from Bushido.

In the first half of this film, Kiyoshi Atsumi appears, playing the role of Tokijiro's henchman.

Many people will likely notice this when watching it.

Shin Hasegawa's matatabi (traveling gambler) stories may have faded away, but their spirit was inherited and continued in "Tora-san" (1969–).