Jidaigeki

Jidaigeki rely on an established set of dramatic conventions including the use of makeup, language, catchphrases, and plotlines.

The long-running television series Zenigata Heiji and Abarenbō Shōgun typify the Edo jidaigeki.

In fact, masseurs, who typically were at the bottom of the professional food chain, was one of the few vocational positions available to the blind in that era.

Whether the lead role is samurai or commoner, jidaigeki usually reach a climax in an immense sword fight just before the end.

Bugeisha were men, or in some stories women, who aimed to perfect their martial arts, often by traveling throughout the country.

Craftsmen in jidaigeki included metalworkers (often abducted to mint counterfeit coins), bucket-makers, carpenters and plasterers, and makers of woodblock prints for art or newspapers.

Itinerant merchants included the organized medicine-sellers, vegetable-growers from outside the city, and peddlers at fairs outside temples and shrines.

The ōmetsuke were high-ranking officials in the shogunate; the metsuke and kachi-metsuke, lower-ranking police who could detain samurai.

Yet another police force investigated arson-robberies, while Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples fell under the control of another authority.

The feudal nature of Japan made these matters delicate, and jurisdictional disputes are common in jidaigeki.

The daimyō-bikeshi were in the service of designated daimyōs; the jōbikeshi reported to the shogunate; while the machi-bikeshi, beginning under Yoshimune, were commoners under the administration of the machi-bugyō.

In addition to a staff of samurai, the household included ashigaru (lightly armed warrior-servants) and chūgen and yakko (servants often portrayed as flamboyant and crooked).

In Mito Kōmon, in which the eponymous character disguises himself as a commoner, in the final sword fight, a sidekick invariably holds up an accessory bearing the shogunal crest and shouts, Hikae!

Likewise, Tōyama no Kin-san bares his tattooed shoulder and snarls, Kono sakurafubuki o miwasureta to iwasane zo!

Examples are Ghost of Tsushima, Shogun: Total War series or Japanese campaigns of Age of Empires III.