# Tange Sazen

Tange Sazen (Japanese: 丹下 左膳) is a fictional swordsman featured in Japanese literature, cinema and TV. Originally a samurai member of the Sōma clan, he is attacked and mutilated, losing his right eye and right arm. He then begins to lead the life of a rōnin, using the pseudonym Sazen.

## Development

Tange Sazen first appeared as a minor character in a newspaper serial by Fubō Hayashi, which ran from October 1927 to May 1928 in the Mainichi Shimbun. The story mainly concerned the exploits of Ōoka Echizen, but the strikingly dramatic illustrations of Tange made by Tomiya Oda, with a scar across his right eye and an empty right sleeve, so caught the imagination of the public that within a few months three silent films about Tange were produced by different companies.
As a result of the success of these films, Hayashi wrote a new serial, Tange Sazen, with Tange as the hero. This initially ran in the Mainichi Shimbun from June to October 1933, but internal strife at the newspaper led to the interruption of publication and the serial eventually resumed in the Yomiuri Shimbun from January 1934. In this story, Tange developed from the nihilistic character he had been in the first novel to a doughty fighter against injustice.
The continued popularity of the character led to the production of the successful title Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryō in 1935, directed by Sadao Yamanaka and starring Denjirō Ōkōchi as a comic Tange.
Ōkōchi is the actor most identified with Tange in the cinema, but many others have played the role.

## Film
### Silent films

| Year | Transcribed title | Original title | Main actor | Director |
| 1928 | Shinban Ōoka seidan | 新版大岡政談 鈴川源十郎の巻 中編 後編 | Tokumaro Dan | Gorō Hirose |
| 1928 | Shinban Ōoka seidan | 新版大岡政談 前編 中編 | Kanjūrō Arashi | Buntarō Futagawa |
| 1928 | Shinban Ōoka seidan | 新版大岡政談 第一編 第二編 第三編 | Denjirō Ōkōchi | Daisuke Itō |

### Sound films starring Denjirō Ōkōchi

| Year | Transcribed title | Original title | Director |
| 1933 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 第一編 第二編 解決編 | Daisuke Itō |
| 1934 | Tange Sazen II: Kengeki no maki | 丹下左膳 第二篇 剣戟の巻 | Daisuke Itō |
| 1935 | The Million Ryo Pot | 丹下左膳余話 百萬両の壺 | Sadao Yamanaka |
| 1936 | Tange Sazen: Nikkō no maki | 丹下左膳 日光の巻 | Kunio Watanabe |
| 1937 | Tange Sazen: Aizō maken hen | 丹下左膳 愛憎魔剣篇 | Kunio Watanabe |
| 1937 | Tange Sazen: Kanketsu hōkō | 丹下左膳 完結咆吼篇 | Kunio Watanabe |
| 1938 | Shinpen Tange Sazen: Yōtō hen | 新篇 丹下左膳 妖刀篇 | Kunio Watanabe |
| 1938 | Shinpen Tange Sazen: Hayate-hen | 新篇 丹下左膳 隻手篇 | Satsuo Yamamoto |
| 1939 | Shinpen Tange Sazen: Sekigan no maki | 新篇 丹下左膳 隻眼の巻 | Nobuo Nakagawa |
| 1939 | Shinpen Tange Sazen: Koiguruma no maki | 新篇 丹下左膳 恋車の巻 | Ryō Hagiwara |
| 1953 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Masahiro Makino |
| 1953 | Zoku Tange Sazen | 続丹下左膳 | Masahiro Makino |
| 1954 | Tange Sazen: Kokezaru no tsubo | 丹下左膳 こけ猿の壺 | Kenji Misumi |

### Sound films starring other actors

| Year | Transcribed title | Original title | Main actor | Director |
| 1936 | Tange Sazen: Kan'un hissatsu no maki | 丹下左膳 乾雲必殺の巻 | Ryūnosuke Tsukigata | Masahiro Makino |
| 1936 | Tange Sazen: Konryū jubaku no maki | 丹下左膳 坤竜呪縛の巻 | Ryūnosuke Tsukigata | Masahiro Makino |
| 1952 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Tsumasaburō Bandō | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1956 | Tange Sazen: Ken'un no maki | 丹下左膳 乾雲の巻 | Michitarō Mizushima | Masahiro Makino |
| 1956 | Tange Sazen: Konryū no maki | 丹下左膳 坤竜の巻 | Michitarō Mizushima | Masahiro Makino |
| 1956 | Tange Sazen: Kanketsu-hen | 丹下左膳 完結篇 | Michitarō Mizushima | Masahiro Makino |
| 1958 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1959 | Tange Sazen: Dotō-hen | 丹下左膳 怒涛篇 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1960 | Tange Sazen: Mysterious Sword | 丹下左膳 妖刀濡れ燕 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1961 | Tange Sazen: Nuretsubame ittōryū | 丹下左膳 濡れ燕一刀流 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Sadatsugu Matsuda |
| 1962 | Tange Sazen: Kan'unkonryū no maki | 丹下左膳 乾雲坤竜の巻 | Ryūtarō Ōtomo | Tai Katō |
| 1963 | Tange Sazen: Zankoku no kawa | 丹下左膳 | Tetsurō Tanba | Seiichirō Uchikawa |
| 1966 | Tange Sazen: Hien iaigiri | 丹下左膳 飛燕居合斬り | Kinnosuke Nakamura | Hideo Gosha |
| 2004 | Tange Sazen: Hyakuman ryō no tsubo | 丹下左膳 百万両の壺 | Etsushi Toyokawa | Toshio Tsuda |

### Female Sazen films

There have also been made adaptations of Tange Sazen as a female character, known in Japanese as Onna Sazen (lit. Female Sazen or Lady Sazen).
| Year | Transcribed title | Original title | Main actress | Director |
| 1937 | Onna Sazen: Dai-ichi hen - yōka no maki | 女左膳 第一篇妖火の巻 | Komako Hara | Nobuo Nakayama |
| 1937 | Onna Sazen: Dai-ni hen - maken no maki | 女左膳 第二篇魔剣の巻 | Komako Hara | Nobuo Nakayama |
| 1950 | Onna Sazen: Tsubanari mutō-ryū no maki | 女左膳 鍔鳴無刀流の巻 | | Taizō Fuyushima |
| 1968 | Lady Sazen and the Drenched Swallow Sword | 女左膳 濡れ燕片手斬り | Michiyo Okusu | Kimiyoshi Yasuda |

## Television dramas

| Years | Transcribed title | Original title | Main actor | Notes |
| 1958–1959 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Tetsurō Tamba | Episodes of Yamaichi meisaku gekijō |
| 1960 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Ryūtarō Tatsumi | Episodes of Shinkokugeki Awā |
| 1963–1964 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Kon Omura | |
| 1965–1966 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Takeya Nakamura | |
| 1967–1968 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Matsuyama Eitaro | |
| 1970 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Ken Ogata | |
| 1971 | Tange Sazen to kushimaki o fuji On'na ga horeta abarenbō | 丹下左膳と櫛巻きお藤 女が惚れた暴れん坊 | Tomisaburō Wakayama | Episodes of Edo kōdan hana no Nihonbashi |
| 1974 | Tange sazen: Kenkon-hen | 丹下左膳 乾坤篇 | Kōji Takahashi | |
| 1974 | Tange Sazen: Koke saru no tsubo-hen | 丹下左膳 こけ猿の壷篇 | Kōji Takahashi | |
| 1982 | Tange Sazen ken-fū! Hyaku man-ryō no tsubo | 丹下左膳 剣風!百万両の壺 | Tatsuya Nakadai | |
| 1990–1994 | Fujita Makoto no Tange Sazen | 藤田まことの丹下左膳 | Makoto Fujita | Four TV specials |
| 2004 | Tange Sazen | 丹下左膳 | Nakamura Shidō II | |