the very best

The name of Tanba's character is Onodaka Hikokuro. Tanba is thoroughly adept at playing a truly evil character.

Hmmm, this could lead to another discussion: so often in novels and films, the villain is rather cardboard. He will twirl his mustache and tell everyone including himself that he's evil, greedy, sadistic and relishes doing things equivilent to pulling wings off of butterflies. If it's a "she," then she is an evil, overpowering you-know-what (female dog) who cackles -- and also relishes doing things equivilent to pulling wings off of butterflies.

I don't think that Tanba's character, Hikokuro, is like that. Not at all. So let's play devil's advocate and look at things from Onodaka Hikokuro's viewpoint. He sees himself as the prime upholder of Bushido and the samurai's code against begging, scrounging ronin (such as Chijiiwa Motome), who would betray the samurai's code. He's probably heard all of the stories about poor, starving ronin who supposedly sold their sword blades to feed their sick, starving families. But, he would tell himself, how many of these sad tales actually cover up poor starving ronin who would sell their sword blades to get more sake or opium to feed their habit?

Think of it. Fast-foward to the modern age. We see people begging in the streets. They have signs, "will work for food." If you offer them a job, they find an excuse for why they can't take it. We tell ourselves "they don't want a job, they want a handout for their next fix or drink." Some of them even say stuff like "homeless combat veteran" but their discharge papers are nowhere to be found -- because a lot of these papers don't exist.

Okay, now fast-backward again. Here is Onodaka Hikokuro, who spent years training in his kendo technique (Shindo-Munen), getting whacked on the side by his sensei time after time until he got the technique correct -- all in service to his lord and his clan, which is a samurai's duty. He hears the stories, the pathetic tales of ronin who supposedly all fought at Sekigahara or the Summer Siege at Osaka or wherever. But actually, (Hikokuro thinks) some of them never set foot anywhere near a battlefield.

These shameless scoundrels claim to want to commit seppuku and (Hikokuro has heard) a lot of them don't even possess real swords; and they use bamboo sword blades to cover up their lack of real swords, to deceive others. So how can they commit seppuku? And isn't the sword (which Hikokuro spent years training with) the soul of the samurai? Hikokuro swears to himself, no matter how starving and poor he ever would be, he'd NEVER part with his sword, his very soul.

So on that day. A ragged, scrounging beggar ronin comes to the gate and says that he wishes to commit seppuku. This already arouses Hikokuro's ire -- important clan business is interupted by this interloper. Later on, Hikokuro and his collegues discover that this man, like many others he's heard about, has those bamboo blades -- so how can he commit seppuku? It's obvious to Hikokuro that this wretch really doesn't want to commit seppuku, he wants a handout. He probably thinks that Motome is like them all, sold his swords for a fix and now is probably begging money for another fix.

The crowning proof of this, as far as Hikokuro is concerned, is when the arrangements for Motome's seppuku (which he asked for) and the proper dress for his seppuku ritual are provided -- and Motome keeps begging for a postponement. That's the straw that breaks the camel back as far as Hikokuro and his colleagues are concerned. He'll teach this begging scum ronin and all of the other begging scum ronin a lesson once and for all. And thus, at the seppuku ritual, Motome is presented with his own sword. Hikokuro (who is his second, his kaishaku) tells him, "the sword is the soul of the samurai; this is your sword, appropriate for you."

Chances are that Hikokuro would think that this begging scum is a coward who will try to run again -- and the clansmen can cut him down righteously. But then the man picks up his bamboo wakizashi and actually puts it inside his stomach. Hikokuro might think that this is sheer insolence, sullying the sacred ritual of seppuku. So he declines Motome's request to cut his head off. But also, deep inside, it would affect him; Motome isn't acting the way that has been expected. So he gets angry and keeps telling him, almost sarcastically, "cut it across your stomach; I won't strike until you do." Then the begging wretch has the audacity to bite his tongue, going into death in his own way.

Fast-forward just a bit to when Hanshiro has fought Hikokuro and taken his topknot in revenge. We only know in the film that shortly after that, Hikokoro commited seppuku. Why did he do that? Was he remorseful? Probably not. He may have even rationalized to himself that Hanshiro somehow "cheated" and used "dirty tactics." But to the very end, Hikokuro decides, he will practice what he preaches and will take his own life (with his own wakizashi) the way it is supposed to be done.

Getting out of Hikokuro's skin, so to speak, and back into my own: Hikokuro and his fellow clansmen had many choices, many ways to deal with this, as Hanshiro points out after explaining the real predictabment. His self-righteousness led him to take on the mind and actions of a sadist -- he didn't need to do that. Hanshiro readily acknowledges that Motome's action of trying to exort money by making an insincere request for seppuku was wrong. The implication is that, had the Ii clan members presented Motome with a regular seppuku blade and then insisted on the seppuku, that this would have been acceptable. But Hikokuro and his colleagues made a different choice -- and thus they have to pay for it with their lives.

Takiguchi (the author of the original novel) and Kobayashi drive home their theme a lot better with antagonists whose motives can be understood. Rather than just using cardboard, evil villains. This makes their work even more thought-provoking and more compelling.

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