or ''Three for the Kill!'' is a group of seven 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 o ...

'' series broadcast by

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 show aired in the Thursday evening eight o'clock time slot.

Characters

The title characters are three men who wander throughout Japan in the late

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

. In each episode they encounter antagonists, and in the final ''tachimawari'' (fight scene) kill them. The characters traveled sometimes together, sometimes separately. When they arrived in a town they might settle in the same lodging, but sometimes take up with rival factions. In the end, they work together to overcome evil. For the first five series, these characters were the same. Yasaka Heishirō, nicknamed "Tono-sama" ("Lord") is a refined, disciplined ''

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 ...

'' played by

Hideki Takahashi is a Japanese actor. Born in Kisarazu, Chiba near Tokyo, he attended Ichikawa Gakuen and later Nihon University. Career Takahashi made his debut with Nikkatsu and acted in youth-oriented films. Takahashi made film debut with ''Kōgenji'' direct ...

. The other characters occasionally speculate that he is a second son of a ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

'' but his identity is never revealed. He is the informal leader of the group. Yasaka uses the Onoha Ittō-ryū style of sword fighting. He appears in the first six series; at the beginning of the seventh series he is written out of the script by traveling to America. Kuji Shinnosuke, or "Sengoku," is also a ronin, or a spy for the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in ...

, or a commoner, as suits the episode. His nickname refers to his wish to work as a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of History of Japan#Medieval Japan (1185–1573/1600), medieval and Edo period, early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retai ...

with a stipend of a thousand '' koku.'' A native of the

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshim ...

, Kuji practices the Jigen-ryū sword fighting style. He appears in the first five series and returns in the seventh. Kōji Yakusho played the role of Kuji. Tsubakuro Jinnai is the third member of the group. Nicknamed "Tako" ("octopus"), he describes himself as a descendant of the Kōga

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 ...

and fights with a variety of weapons. Round-faced ''

rakugo is a form of '' yose'', which is itself a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone sits on a raised platform, a . Using only a and a as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a lon ...

'' comic Koasa Shunpūtei portrayed Jinnai in all seven series. The title of the series specifies three people, so a replacement was necessary for Kuji and Yasaka in the final two series. Kira Ukon (

Masahiko Kondō or Matchy is a Japanese singer, lyricist, actor, racing car manager and former semi-professional racing driver. He was a member of the Tanokin Trio. Kondō is also a semi-professional racing driver and a racing team owner. He founded the racing ...

, a descendant of

Kira Yoshinaka was a ''kōke'' (master of ceremonies). His court title was '' Kōzuke no suke (上野介)''. He is famous as the adversary of Asano Naganori in the events of the Forty-seven rōnin. Although his name (義央) has been long pronounced as "Yos ...

, filled in first for Kuji, then for Yasaka. A debt-collector, he received the nickname "senryō," "a thousand gold pieces," in imitation of Kuji's nickname. During sword fights, he always found an opportunity to ask his opponent his style. In most series, there was also a woman who accompanied the three. The first was Okei, portrayed by Kaoru Sugita. Next came Osen (

Minako Fujishiro is a Japanese feminine given name. Minako can be written using different kanji characters: *美奈子, "beauty, apple tree, child" *美那子, "beauty, unknown, child" or "beauty, child" *美菜子, "beauty, (green) vegetable, child" *美名子, ...

); then Ochō (

Yōko Nagayama is a Japanese '' enka'' singer, former J-pop singer, and actress. Early life Nagayama was born in Tokyo. At the age of four, she began attending min'yo group singing lessons with her father. Although she originally went because she enjoyed ...

). They were followed by Okaru ( Wakako Shimazaki) and finally Oryō ( Machi Katsuragi).

Schedule

The first series premiered in 1987, and the seventh ended in 1995. In addition, TV Asahi broadcast another series in 2002 with a new cast and new characters. This series aired on Monday nights.

References

External links

TV Asahi
page on ''Zoku'' series
TV Asahi
page on ''Zoku-zoku'' series

Sources

This article incorporates information from the article 三匹が斬る! (''Sanbiki ga Kiru!'') in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved September 24, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanbiki Ga Kiru! Jidaigeki television series 1987 Japanese television series debuts 1995 Japanese television series endings 2002 Japanese television series debuts TV Asahi original programming