and are long-running (1970 to 1992)

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

television ''

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hel ...

'' programs that originally aired from 1970 to 1992. The series was broadcast on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

(Tokyo 12 Channel). The title literally translates as "

Oedo Oedo is an island of Geoje city, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea. It is a marine western-style botanical garden in Hallyeohaesang National Park, built by Lee Chang-ho and his wife when they settled on the island in 1969. It was the setting of th ...

Dragnet" ("New Oedo Dragnet" for the second series). Early on, it carried the subtitle "Ōedo Untouchables."

Characters

The central characters are a

ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enem ...

group who serve as

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

agents in Edo. They work

undercover To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an indi ...

under the direction of a

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However ...

, and later, under

Matsudaira Sadanobu was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the mid-Edo period, famous for his financial reforms which saved the Shirakawa Domain, and the similar reforms he undertook during his tenure as chief of the Tokugawa shogunate, from 1787 to 1793. Early life Mat ...

. * Jūmonji Koyata, masquerading as a vagrant from

Sagami Sagami may refer to: * Sagami, an 11th-century ''waka'' poet *Sagami Province, an old province in Japan *Sagami River, a river in Kanagawa and Yamanashi *Sagami Bay, a bay south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshū *Sagami Line, a railway roughly along ...

, Sanjirō. The male lead, Koyata was played by

Ryōtarō Sugi (born 14 August 1944, Kobe) is a Japanese singer and actor. He is the father of actor Jundai Yamada. He appeared in ''Sukima Kaze'', which sold over a million copies. His acting credits include 18 films. On television, he specialized in ''jid ...

Kōtarō Satomi (born 28 November 1936) is a Japanese actor from the city of Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In 1956, he signed with Toei film company. He appears in both contemporary roles and in the historical dramas known as '' jidaigeki''. Sele ...

Hiroki Matsukata , better known by his stage name , was a Japanese actor. He was the son of ''jidaigeki'' actor Jūshirō Konoe and actress Yaeko Mizukawa and has a younger brother, Yūki Meguro, who is also an actor. With ex-wife actress Akiko Nishina he had t ...

, Shirō Namiki, and Jun Hashizume. * Isaka Jūzō, masquerading as a

rōnin A ''rōnin'' ( ; ja, 浪人, , meaning 'drifter' or 'wanderer') was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period of Japan (1185–1868). A samurai became masterless upon the death of his master or after the loss of his master's ...

of the same name.

Tetsurō Sagawa was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Tateyama, Chiba. He was a graduate of Waseda University. Filmography Film *'' Dai Ninjutsu Eiga: Watari'' (Nagato Fujibayashi) *'' Fūrinkazan'' ( Nobutomo Akiyama) *'' Onmitsu Dōshin Ōedo Sōsamō ...

created the role. * Female leads: Konami (

Meiko Kaji is a Japanese actress and singer. Since the 1960s, she has appeared in over 100 film and television roles, most prominently in the 1970s with her most famous roles as outlaw characters, best known for her performances in the film series '' Stra ...

), Yūgiri (Miyako Koshiro), Kurenai Ochō ( Michiyo Yasuda), Inazuma Oryū (

Sanae Tsuchida is a Japanese actress. She was born on July 26, 1949, in Toyonaka, Osaka. In film, Tsuchida had a role in ''Kore ga Seishun Da!'' (1966). In another modern role (1976), she appeared in the Norifumi Suzuki film ''Torakku Yarō: Hōkyō Ichiban Ho ...

), Kazaguruma no Okiku (

Yōko Natsuki is an actress, born 24 October 1952 in Ise, Mie Prefecture, Japan. She started her career in the 1977 movie Karate for Life. One of her television roles was as Osono, a ninja in the jidaigeki series ''Yoshimune Hyōbanki: Abarenbō Shōgun.'' ...

), and others. A 1979 film ''Onmitsu Dōshin Ōedo Sōsamō'' starred Hiroki Matsukata, included

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in over 150 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration (1948–1965) with Akira Kurosawa in such works as ''Rashomon'', ''Seven Samurai'', ''The Hidden Fortress'', ''Throne of Blood'', and '' ...

in the role of Matsudaira Sadanobu.

TV special

The special episode '' Onmitsu Doshin: Oedo Sosamo'' was made in 1979, guest-starring

Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in over 150 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration (1948–1965) with Akira Kurosawa in such works as ''Rashomon'', ''Seven Samurai'', ''The Hidden Fortress'', ''Throne of Blood'', and '' ...

in a rare TV role.

Rebroadcasts

Jidaigeki Senmon Channel has rerun all the other 715 episodes via satellite and cable.

References

External links

Official website
*

1970 Japanese television series debuts 1992 Japanese television series endings Jidaigeki television series Ninja in fiction TV Tokyo original programming {{Asia-tv-prog-stub