Tange Sazen

[1] Originally a samurai member of the Sōma clan, he is attacked and mutilated, losing his right eye and right arm.

[1] 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.

[1] 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.

[1] In this story, Tange developed from the nihilistic character he had been in the first novel to a doughty fighter against injustice.

[1] 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.