Lantern, Megumi (Firefighting company), Abarenbo Shogun

Abarenbo Shogun (暴れん坊将軍) was a Japanese television program on the TV Asahi network. Set in the eighteenth century, it showed the fictitious events in the life of Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun. The program started in 1978 under the title Yoshimune Hyobanki: Abarembo Shogun (Chronicle in Praise of Yoshimune: The Bold Shogun). After a few seasons, it lost the first two words and ran for two decades under the shorter title until the series ended in 2003. (A two-hour special aired in 2004, and more might follow.) The earliest scripts featured some historic events such as the establishment of firefighting companies of commoners in Edo, but eventually the series fell into a routine of strictly fiction. Megumi Abarembo Shogun Television series Toei Uzumasa Studios Kyoto Japan I took this photograph and contribute it to the public domain. ... Megumi Abarembo Shogun Television series Toei Uzumasa Studios Kyoto Japan I took this photograph and contribute it to the public domain. ... TV Asahi building in Roppongi Hills TV Asahi Corporation (EX, 株式会社テレビ朝日, Kabushiki Gaisha Terebi Asahi) is a television network operating in Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Tokugawa Yoshimune (November 27, 1684–July 12, 1751) was the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, known for his financial reform. ... The Tokugawa shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. ... This page is about the Japanese ruler and military rank. ... History is a term for information about the past. ... Firefighter with an axe DC-FEMS firefighters working a pizzeria fire in the District of Columbia A firefighter is a person who is trained and equipped to put out fires, rescue people, and in some areas provide emergency medical services. ... A commoner, in British law, is someone who is neither the Sovereign nor a noble. ... DRAM is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor. ... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ...

Along with Zenigata Heiji and Mito Komon, it ranks among the longest-running series in the jidaigeki genre. Like so many other jidaigeki, it falls in the category of kanzen-choaku, loosely, rewarding good and punishing evil. Jidaigeki (時代劇) is a genre of film and television in Japan. ... A genre is any of the traditional divisions of art forms from a single field of activity into various kinds according to criteria particular to that form. ...

Regular Characters

Himeji Castle, used in Abarenbo Shogun in place of Edo Castle

Tokugawa Yoshimune Himeji castle frontview Date: 2002-01-03 Place: Taken near the main entrance Copyright: Copyright-free Photographer: synthetik This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Himeji castle frontview Date: 2002-01-03 Place: Taken near the main entrance Copyright: Copyright-free Photographer: synthetik This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Himeji Castle Himeji Castle in late spring The grounds of the castle and the surrounding city Himeji Castle (姫路城; -jō) is located in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. ... Categories: Stub | Castles in Japan ...

Disguised as Tokuda Shinnosuke — Shin-san to his friends —, the third son of a hatamoto, the shogun roams freely about his capital, using the Megumi fire company as his base. The captain of the company knows his identity, but others are unaware that he is the shogun.

Actor Ken Matsudaira originated the role and played it for 25 years.

Ōoka Echizen-no-Kami Tadasuke A hatamoto (旗本) is an official guard of a daimyo or shogun in feudal Japan. ... In politics a capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has an alternative meaning based on an alternative meaning of capital) is the principal city or town associated with its government. ... Captain is both a nautical term and a military rank. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... Ken Matsudaira (松平 健 Matsudaira Ken, born November 11, 1953) is a Japanese actor from Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan. ... Ooka Tadasuke (大岡 忠相 Ōoka Tadasuke, 1677 - 1752) was a Japanese judge in the reign of Tokugawa Shogunate. ...

Tadasuke was a historical personage. Yoshimune appointed him to the position of Minami Machi Bugyō, one of the two chief administrators of Edo. In this office, he was mayor, police chief, judge and jury. He instituted and oversaw the operations of the commoners' fire companies, each of which was known by a kana such as め (me). He also oversaw "City Hospital" (Koishikawa Yōjōsho, another Yoshimune innovation).

Masashi Yokouchi played Tadasuke for nearly twenty years; Ryō Tamura replaced him in the closing seasons.

Goyō toritsugi Kana is a general term for two types of syllabic Japanese script: hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ). ...

The goyō toritsugi (or soba yōnin) was the person who scheduled appointments for the Shogun. In the first two casts, the character's name was Kanō Gorozaemon (played by the late comic Ichirō Arita). Next came Tanokura Magobei (Eiji Funakoshi), and a few followed in the cast changes of the last years of the show.

Megumi, Fire company on Abarembo Shogun

Fire captain Megumi, Abarembo Shogun, Television series, Toei Uzumasa Studios, Kyoto, Japan I took this photograph and contribute it to the public domain. ... Megumi, Abarembo Shogun, Television series, Toei Uzumasa Studios, Kyoto, Japan I took this photograph and contribute it to the public domain. ...

Tatsugoro was the founder of the Megumi fire company. Enka singer Saburō Kitajima played in the series from beginning to end. Never one to shun a brawl, this short, stocky character was altruistic to a fault, stubborn, and fiercely loyal to Yoshimune.

Kitajima also sang the closing theme songs for several years.

Later, Tatsugorō retired from the Megumi and assumed a different occupation; the writers of the series brought in Jōji Yamamoto, another singer (and a disciple of Kitajima) to play Chōjirō, the successor to Tatsugorō. In all, there were three captains during the series.

Women of Megumi The word Enka has two meanings. ... Saburo Kitajima (北島 三郎; Kitajima Saburo, born October 4, 1936) is a well known Enka singer. ...

Three actresses played Osai, the feisty wife of Tatsugoro. Later, when hen Tatsugorō left the fire company, the new captain Chōjirō married Obun, the young fishmonger/beat cop. The third captain was unmarried; his widowed sister Okyō was the lady of the Megumi.

Firemen

The cast always included half a dozen firefighters. While the roles were minor, together they were a prominent presence in the series. Character actors and comics played these parts.

In the first several years, a retired sumo wrestler named Ryūko was part of the company. Initially he played a retired sumo wrestler named Ryūko, a guest of the captain. He later became a bone-setting doctor, and finally joined the crew of the fire company.

Oniwaban (ninja)

The show always had a male and a female oniwaban. A few of the actors and actresses have gone on to starring roles in other series. The talented actress Takashima Reiko is particularly well known. The original, Osono, was played by Natsuki Yoko. Her successor, Asaka Mayumi, is currently active.

Tokugawa Muneharu Reiko Takashima (高島礼子 Takashima Reiko; born 25 July 1964 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan) is a Japanese actress. ...

The historical Yoshimune came to power when the main line of succession to the Tokugawa shogunate came to an end. He was chosen from the second of the three cadet branches of the Tokugawa clan, and the head of the first branch, Muneharu, was passed over. The television series frequently presented Muneharu as a rival who tried to assassinate Yoshimune and take over the shogunate. Even when he did not appear, many villains acted in his name, or planned to receive their reward from Muneharu when he became shogun.

Narrator

Genzō Wakayama narrated the show from the first episode to the last.

Guest stars

Over the course of a quarter of a century, the show featured a parade of celebrities. Singers, actors, and athletes of all ages played various roles, in some cases including themselves: Ryūko appeared as a guest several years after leaving the regular cast. Hibari Misora, the famous singer, also appeared in the series.

Hibari Misora (美空ひばり, May 29, 1937 - June 24, 1989) was a Japanese singer and the predominant figure in postwar enka music. ...

Stories

The show was frequently topical, and touched on many themes of present-day life. The most common subject was political corruption, and at the end of about eight hundred episodes, Yoshimune, after defeating his inferior using the back of his sword, commanded his oniwaban to kill the corrupt official. Drugs, unequal power relationships, poverty, urbanization, the generation gap, inflation, and the tension between Japanese and foreign knowledge were recurring themes.