Who is Zatoichi? Like the much beloved JamesBond in the USA, "Zatoichi", is one of Japan's longest running film and TV series. "Zatoichi" came into being in 1962, and after 26 films and a TV series it ended in 1989 when the late Shintaro Katsu, the only man to ever bring Zatoichi to life, passed away, leaving the iconic role without a face. The title character Zatoichi is a blind nomad in 19thcentury Japan, who makes his living as a gambler and masseuse. Don't befooled though, behind his humble facade lies a master swordsman with lightning fast reflexes and hair-raising precision. He is part martial arts master, part detective, part yakuza, part pathos, and is arguably the world's most popular fictional character in history. It's just a history we don't get to learn here in the West. In spite of that fact, "Zatoichi" does have a larger following than one would imagine. Finally, after more than 40 years "Zatoichi" is finally remade by one of Japan's biggest icons, Takeshi "Beat" Kitano. Reinvented by the celebrated Japanese actor/writer/director, Zatoichi is an update to the classic Katsu films, Kitano gives it his own flavor and style.

Kitano is one of my favorite Japanese actor/director.  As an actor, he's probably comparable to either Al Pacino or Robert Deniro here in the states.  As a director, he's probably a mix of Quentin Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppola.  Kitano has a very subtle and slow way of telling stories, but when there is action and bloodshed, THERE IS ACTION AND BLOODSHED.  I first discovered Kitano's films early on when I was a teenage pimple-faced kid working at a video store.  Watching his early Yakuza films were like watching Scarface for the very first time.  Once Kitano popped my cherry, I couldn't look at other Japanese films much the same way any more.  He was my first love and he set me on a path of brutally good Japanese gangster films that later followed.  To make a long story short, making a 1/6th Beat Kitano figure means a lot to me.  Kitano is "the man" in so many ways.

The head is a private commission I put in with Jim Maddox.  No matter what the price, I have to have Kitano dammit!  I had two versions made - one with the slick back gangster hair and this "blind swordsman" Zatoichi version.  I painted his head with acrylics and pastel shading.  I then sewed up all of his clothes with various fabrics.  I didn't understand much about Japanese outfits so a trip down to Japantown was in place.  You'll probably be surprised if I say this, but Japanese clothing is the easiest to make.  They're just squares and rectangles sewn together.  His clothes were the easy part.  His sandals are another matter though.  I initially tried to use real wood, cut and sanded down to shape but the problem was it was, well, wood!  The wood was slightly heavy and I had a hell of a time getting both sandals to exact same size.  I guess with a little more patience I can probably make another pair to perfection.  But I'm pretty lazy and I try to get away with what I can.  Ultimately, I ended up making his sandals out of balsa wood, which is an almost paper thin, paper weight sort of compressed wood.  You can even cut it with a blade and punch through it with a pen.

The sword cane is from the Mononofu Series 5 1/6 scaled miniatures.  This sword cane is actually the original Shintaro Katsu version.  The new Zatoichi cane was very different.  It was basically just a red cane, fully rounded, and was a bit longer than this version.  I have a private commission I got from Auret7 for that sword cane (which is more movie accurate) but decided not to use it because it seemed a bit too long.  I will definitely post some pics of it for a size comparison one of these days.  The cool thing about the Mononofu sword was that it came with a set of dice and roller, which was pretty cool.  See above.  I also added some Barbie sized rement Japanese goodies for him and made a bag to keep all the goodies in.

Another thing that was super tough was really his hands.  Because Zatoichi grips both the sword and sheath with both hands, I need some gripping hands for him.  I used a Dragon base body and so finding hands that grip the small sword cane was tough.  I then explored BBI's Saburo sword hand, but the problem was he only came with one right hand.  Dammit.  I then explored the use of modifying the highly detailed Sideshow set of hands.  But the question I kept asking myself was, "do I really want to buy a figure to take just the hands?"  Sideshow's bodies are pretty crappy so taking the hands away would only leave one option for the body - the trash.  I finally ended up using Worthfield's Real Guy hands.  They come in a set of three different types of hands - glove, no gloves, and fingerless gloves.  Worthfield's hands are the best bendy hands on the market today.  These bendy hands kick so much butt.  They rarely deteriorate over time and it holds poses and items (guns, knives, swords) extremely well.  It also looks really natural, unlike Dragon or Hot Toys' hands.  Check out his hang loose poses below and see what I mean.