Chapter 450: The Birth of "One Knife Studio" And the Attack of Bandits! [7,600 Words]

In the second year of Kanzheng, December 4——

Nishinocho, in a certain house——

As soon as Ogata entered the house, he saw Jiro Nishino.

Nishino Jiro was sitting cross-legged on the ground, watching seriously the rehearsal of the members of Takarashimaya in front of him.

After seeing Ogata entering the house, Jiro Nishino and the members of Takarajimaya stopped what they were doing, and greeted Ogata with their faces.

With the concerted efforts of Ogata and Nishino Jiro, the script was finally successfully completed the day before yesterday—it has to be said that Nishino Jiro is still very talented in writing.

In such a short period of time, a script that Ogata was quite satisfied with was completed.

In fact, Ogata did not understand kabuki, nor did he know what kind of kabuki script was considered a good script.

He only knew that under his guidance, Jiro Nishino's kabuki script basically conformed to historical facts, and could be read as a history book.

In Ogata's eyes, as long as the script based on his deeds is in line with the real situation, it is a good script.

After finishing the script around 9 o'clock in the morning the day before yesterday, Jiro Nishino excitedly carried the script and took Ogata to find the only Kabuki troupe in Nishinocho, Takarajimaya.

According to Nishino Jiro, although Treasure Island House is a kabuki troupe, all the members in it only take kabuki as a full-time job, and there is no one who relies entirely on kabuki for a living.

All members of Takarajima House usually have their main business, and only regard Kabuki as a hobby and part-time job. I usually do my own main business, and only when I encounter some festivals, I get together to perform a play together, satisfying my hobbies and at the same time earning some extra money.

Because they don’t rely on kabuki to eat, but rely purely on enthusiasm to perform kabuki, every play performed by Treasure Island House is of high quality. It is well-known in Nishikino Town and is very popular with the people of Nishikino Town. Welcome.

Whenever Treasure Island House is going to perform Kabuki, the tickets will be sold out quickly, and every show is basically full of seats.

Every New Year, Takarajima House will perform Kabuki in Nishinocho.

Because of the high popularity of Treasure Island House, watching the performance of Treasure Island House has become one of the things that many people in Nishino Town must do every New Year.

Nishino Jiro, who aspires to become a "Kabuki playwright", has a very good relationship with Takarajima House.

Prior to this, Jiro Nishino had made an agreement with Treasure Island House - this year's New Year, Treasure Island House will perform a new play written by Jiro Nishino.

So for this script by Nishino Jiro, the members of Treasure Island House have been waiting for a long time.

The morning before yesterday, when Jiro Nishino handed over the finished script to the members of Treasure Island House for reading, all the members of Treasure Island House praised the script written by Jiro Nishino, saying that this is a movie that might be a hit. Welcome to a good show.

Treasure Island House has a total of 15 members, of which 8 are in charge of playing music and 7 are in charge of acting—all of them are eager to try. They just received the script the day before yesterday and immediately started rehearsing in full swing.

There are many similarities between Chinese opera and Japanese kabuki. For example: Both of these performing arts have special personnel responsible for playing background music on the spot.

In Chinese opera, there will be special personnel responsible for playing the erhu and playing the castanets behind the scenes, and adding background music to the performances in front of the scene.

And Japanese kabuki is similar - there are special personnel responsible for playing shamisen, blowing shakuhachi, and playing various musical instruments behind the scenes to provide background music for the performances in front of the scene.

In a professional Kabuki troupe, in addition to those who are in charge of playing music and rehearsals, there are also those who are in charge of make-up, setting up the stage background, and doing chores...

And Treasure Island House is just an amateur theater troupe whose members only take Kabuki as a side job.

So there are two types of people who are in charge of playing music and those who are in charge of performances, which is barely enough.

The play that Jiro Nishino wrote required a minimum of seven actors—just right.

Ogata also became somewhat curious about the art of kabuki through the time he spent writing scripts with Jiro Nishino a few days ago.

Since the script was compiled the day before yesterday and rehearsals have begun, Ogata's morning activities have changed from "writing the script with Jiro Nishino" to "come and see their rehearsal".

The room that Ogata is currently walking into is the place where the members of Treasure Island House are specially used to rehearse Kabuki.

"Good morning! Mashima-kun!" Jiro Nishino greeted Ogata with enthusiasm as usual.

"Good morning." Ogata nodded in agreement, and sat cross-legged beside Nishino Jiro, "How is everyone rehearsing?"

"It's going well so far!" Nishino's tone was full of excitement that couldn't be concealed, "Everyone is enthusiastic! We can't wait to perform "One Knife Studio" in the New Year."

"One Knife Studio" - the name Ogata and the others gave this play.

A good name, to some extent, determines the life and death of a drama.

If we can come up with a resounding, catchy title that can be remembered even by people who cannot read, it will greatly promote the spread of this play.

After finishing writing the script, Ooyo and Nishino racked their brains to think about what to name the play.

In the end, Ogata made the final decision—name the play "One Knife Studio".

Although Ogata now has a bunch of titles, "Executioner Yidao Zhai", "Ogata Yidao Zhai", "Ren Zhan Yi Shi", "Sura"...

But the most widely circulated is undoubtedly "Executioner Yidao Zhai".

Since Ogata left the feudal clan, almost all the people he met who used his title to call him used "Yitao Zhai" or "Ogata Yidao Zhai" to call him, and very few people used his other titles to call him he.

"Yidao Zhai" has only three syllables, which is catchy and widely spread.

This play is based on his deeds, so it is just right to use the title "Yidao Zhai" as the name of this play.

After Ogata proposed the name "One Knife Studio", Jiro Nishino immediately nodded in agreement with bright eyes.

That's how the name of the play was decided.

"That's good." Ogata nodded with a smile, and followed Nishino Jiro silently to watch the members of Takarashimaya who were rehearsing "One Sword Studio" in front of them.

When writing the script with Jiro Nishino, Ogata also learned a lot about kabuki from Jiro Nishino.

Early kabuki was not something that could be put on the stage, it was a bit like a modern gray industry.

When Kabuki was first born, it mainly relied on selling its hue to attract attention.

Many female kabuki attract people to watch the performance by their beauty.

A very small number of female kabuki perform some physical transactions while performing kabuki.

After the Edo shogunate noticed this chaos, it felt offensive. So in the sixth year of Kanei, the Edo shogunate issued a ban on "female kabuki", and women were prohibited from performing kabuki.

Without women to perform, what about the female characters in the play?

Then let the cute boys play it.

After the Edo Shogunate banned "female kabuki", "Wakasho Kabuki" was born.

"Ruozhong" refers to underage men.

The ban on "female kabuki" has caused people to shift their attention to the lovely "Wakashu kabuki".

The important task of playing female roles and selling luster to attract attention has shifted from "female kabuki" to the shoulders of "ruozhong kabuki".

In the first year of Chengying, the Edo shogunate also banned Ruozhong Kabuki on the grounds of immorality.

So far, neither women nor underage men can perform kabuki, and only adult men can perform kabuki.

But Kabuki's troubled history is not over yet.

As the saying goes, "There are policies at the top, and countermeasures at the bottom." After the Edo shogunate banned underage men from performing kabuki, many underage men continued to perform kabuki disguised as adult men.

And it's not just underage men who have cute looks, and there are a lot of cute-looking men among grown men.

Therefore, even though the shogunate issued a ban on "female kabuki" and "Wakasaka kabuki", the current situation that kabuki relies on selling their appearance to attract attention, and a large number of kabuki actors do some immoral things has not changed in any way.

The Edo shogunate was furious, thinking that the kabuki actors could not be saved.

Therefore, in the second year of the Ming Dynasty, the shogunate ordered the demolition of all theaters in Kyoto, the center of kabuki, on the grounds of the kabuki beating incident.

When kabuki was about to be swept into the dustbin of history, with the efforts of many kabuki defenders, the shogunate agreed to let kabuki go on the condition of "removing the prostitution of lust and performing orthodox dramas".

Since then, Kabuki has officially embarked on the right path of "serious" drama.

Thanks to the efforts of many kabuki playwrights and kabuki actors, kabuki has gradually changed from a "grey industry" that is not very popular to the current performing art that is very popular and loved by all classes.

However, the shogunate has still not lifted the ban on "female kabuki" and "waka kabuki".

Therefore, all members of Takarashimaya who are currently rehearsing in front of Ogata, without exception-all are adult men.

On the Kabuki stage, all roles are played by adult men, regardless of whether they are male or female.

So you don't need any doubts - every female character you see on a Kabuki stage, no matter how beautiful "she" looks, is a drag queen.

Ogata and Nishino co-authored this "One Swordsman", there are female characters-two female characters based on the prototypes of the izakaya where Ogata used to work, Saki and Afu.

Ogata felt very complicated when he learned that the two characters based on Saki and Afu had to be played by men.

Fortunately, it is two very handsome men from Treasure Island House who are in charge of playing these two female characters based on Azaki and Afu.

According to Nishino Jiro, these two are the actors who are in charge of playing women in Treasure Island House.

After women and minors were not allowed to perform kabuki, the female roles in the play were all played by young people with good looks, preferably boys and girls.

After watching Treasure Island House's rehearsal with Nishino Jiro for a while, Oo conveniently resigned and left.

Although Ogata came to watch the rehearsal almost every morning, it was impossible to spend the whole morning here watching other people's rehearsals, it would be boring to death.

So Ogata would simply take a look, then leave, and then rush to Baosheng Sword Hall to gain experience... Ah, no. It is to guide the apprentices of Baosheng Sword Gym, and at the same time to gain some experience.

Anyway, the rehearsal venue of Treasure Island House is quite close to Baosheng Sword Gym, so it doesn't get in the way.

...

...

As evening approached—

"It's right to hold the place close to the knife with your right hand, but don't use too much force with your left hand. Let go of the little finger of your left hand and only hold it gently with your ring finger, middle finger and index finger."

Holding a wooden knife, Ogata, who was posing in the middle, pointed to a young man standing opposite him with a sword in front of him.

The young man's name is Xiaolin, and he is also one of the "Ten Swords of Baosheng".

To be named "Baosheng Ten Swords", Kobayashi still has a bit of talent in swordsmanship.

After receiving Ogata's instructions, Kobayashi released the left hand holding the lower end of the knife handle according to Ogata's instructions.

After glancing at Kobayashi's left hand, Ogata nodded:

"That's right, that's it. You maintain this posture and attack me."

"yes!"

Xiao Lin shouted loudly, raised his knife and slashed at Ofang.

Snapped!

When Kobayashi's wooden knife was about to hit Ogata's head, Ogata swung the wooden knife in his hand horizontally, hitting the blade of Kobayashi's wooden knife directly, and knocked Kobayashi's wooden knife flying with one blow.

【Ding! Use Sakakibara Ichidou Ryuo to defeat the enemy]

[Gain 35 personal experience points and 30 experience points for ninjutsu "Shiranui Ninjutsu"]

[Current personal level: LV34]

[Sakakibara Ichikatsu level: 12 ranks]

"How?" Ogata asked Kobayashi in front of him, "Do you feel that the speed of the sword has become much faster?"

"Although it is indeed faster..." Xiao Lin smiled wryly, "But it still can't be realistic, Master Island, you made a second cut..."

Ever since Ogata came up with the nickname "One-Sword Samurai", many people in the Baosheng Sword Gym have silently set a goal for themselves - to force Ogata to make a second sword.

But so far no one has achieved this goal.

"How? Do you want to continue practicing?"

"No." Xiao Lin shook his head, "It's going to be dark, and I'm about to go home."

Ogata turned his head to look at the sky outside the window - the sky is already dark now, and in a while, the sky should be completely black.

"If you don't pay attention, it turns out that the sky is so dark..." Ogata whispered, "Then it's time for me to go."

The Baosheng Sword Gym will close when it gets dark, so all the disciples in the Gym are already gone.

Seeing that it was getting dark now, Ogata also put the wooden knife in his hand back on the knife holder, and was about to leave the sword hall and go back to the hotel to start the night's activities: learning Einu language, and having negative distance contact with A-Machi.

However, as soon as Ogata put the wooden knife in his hand back on the knife holder, he saw an apprentice rushing into the dojo with the hakama on his lower body.

Because Ogata happened to be the closest to the entrance of the dojo, the apprentice took advantage of the situation and asked Ogata:

"Mashima-sama, have you seen the master?"

"Is it the owner of Baosheng Pavilion? He seems to have gone to the bathroom just now."

Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives. As soon as Ogata's words fell, Baosheng, who had just finished using the toilet, returned to the dojo through another small door of the dojo.

Seeing that Baosheng had returned, the apprentice hurried towards Baosheng, and said to Baosheng:

"Master! Two peasants came outside the hall, and they asked you to save them!"

"Farmers? Help them?" Baosheng frowned slightly.

The apprentice did not restrain his voice, so Ogata who was not far away also heard his words.

When he heard the word "save them", Ogata frowned slightly like Baosheng.

...

...

Peasants came to the door and asked for help - a rare event.

Out of curiosity, Baosheng allowed the two farmers to come in.

There is a reception room in the sword hall that is not very commonly used, so Baosheng brought the two farmers to this reception room.

"Then—you two should register first." Baosheng put his hands into his sleeves and looked at the two farmers in front of him.

There are only 4 people in this small reception room.

Baosheng, these two farmers, and Ogata.

Ogata was a little curious about the "save them" that the two farmers said, so he expressed to Baosheng that he wanted to sit and listen.

Ogata is now a distinguished guest of Baosheng Sword Gym, so Baosheng naturally has no reason to refuse such a small request.

After the two farmers sat down in the reception room, Xu Convenience began to look at the two of them.

The appearance of these two people is very characteristic.

There are many spots and wrinkles on a face, which looks quite vicissitudes.

The other is bald, with no hair at all on the top of his head.

The two of them were very stiff and nervous. Since entering the sword gym, their faces had been pale, and their whole bodies seemed to be shrunk together.

His eyes flicked around unconsciously, and he seemed extremely uncomfortable with everything around him.

After hearing Baosheng ask their names, the two farmers responded quickly.

"My name is Zhusan." Said the Vicissitudes farmer.

Bald farmer: "My name is Yushiro."

"Zu Sanhe Yushiro, right?" Baosheng nodded, "Tell me what you are doing, what do you mean by 'help you'?"

"It's like this..." The vicissitudes of life...that is, Zhusan swallowed his saliva, moistened his throat, and continued, "Our village... was taken by ronin..."

"At the end of last month, when one of our villagers went up the mountain to dig wild vegetables, he came across a dozen wanderers lurking on the hillside and secretly observing our village."

"Our companion was secretly hiding not far behind those ronin, so he overheard their conversation."

"The gang of ronin are planning to rob our village, saying they want to grab some good things to have a good year..."

Speaking of this, whether it was the bald farmer named Suzo or the vicissitudes of the farmer named Yushiro, the already pale face became even paler.

"Our village finally survived the 'Famine at dawn'. It was not until this year that life finally got better..."

"If those ronin rob us of our food and property, then we don't know how to live..." Yushiro said, with a tear in his voice.

"Just waiting for those rogues to come and rob is dead, it's better to resist, maybe there is still life..." The speaker changed back to Zhu San.

"So we want to ask the samurai to help! Help us repel those ronin!"

As soon as Zhusan finished speaking, he turned his pleading eyes to Baosheng in front of him.

Yushiro, who also turned his pleading eyes on Baosheng, was on the side.

When Zhusan was about to say something more, Baosheng raised his hand to signal them not to say any more.

"I understand what you mean."

Baosheng said with a blank face.

"So that's how it is... This is what you mean by 'save you'..."

"You want to hire us to help you fight off bandits?"

"Instead of spending so much effort to ask the samurai for help, why don't you ask the government for help?"

As soon as Baosheng finished speaking, Zhu San gritted his teeth and said.

"It's useless to ask the government for help!"

"Our village was plundered by another wave of vagrants three years ago! We asked the government for help at that time!"

"The results of it?"

"It wasn't until those rogues finished looting our village and left in a swaggering manner that the officials from the government came late!"

"What's more, it's still the end of the year, and it's almost the Chinese New Year."

"Now this time is the laziest time in the year for the government!"

"When we report to the government, and then the officials of the government report it layer by layer, and then approve it layer by layer, and dispatch the officials to assist us, I'm afraid it will be years later!"

Baosheng was silent - although he didn't have much dealings with the government, he had heard a little about the bloated organization and slow speed of the government.

"...Since you want to invite samurai to help, how much are you going to pay us?"

Baosheng's question directly made Suzo and Yushiro look embarrassed.

After the two looked at each other for a while, Zhu San gritted his teeth, bowed his head and saluted and said:

"Our whole village... almost starved to death during the 'Famine at dawn'..."

"It's only now that I've finally regained some energy... so we... don't have much money..."

"The only reward we can give... is to ask every warrior who is willing to assist us to eat white rice every meal before repelling the bandits..."

"White rice?" Baosheng frowned, "Do you want to hire samurai just by eating white rice?"

"This is us..." Yushiro buried his head low, "Everything that can be taken out..."

"With such a low salary, you want to hire samurai to work for you... You must not be able to hire many samurai now? Tell me—how many samurai have you hired now?"

Susan and Yushiro looked at each other at the same time, and the embarrassment on their faces became more intense.

"Quickly answer." Baosheng's tone became harsher.

"We are divided into three groups to invite samurai from different villages..." Suzaku said in a low voice, "So far, Yushiro and I have only invited one samurai..."

"A samurai..." Baosheng shook his head helplessly, "As expected, the reward you gave is too low, you don't even give money, just white rice."

"With such a low salary, the only ones who will agree to help you are probably the samurai who are so desperate that they can't even eat, or are extremely warm-hearted."

"I'm sorry. I can't help you. At the same time, I won't let my disciples assist you."

As soon as Baosheng said this, Zusan and Yushiro showed anxious expressions.

Just when the two of them were about to say something more, Baosheng took the lead and said:

"Even if you go to all the surrounding cities and towns, you probably won't be able to invite more than 10 samurai."

"As for the gang of ronin who intend to rob you, there are more than ten people who just came to scout."

"The total number of them is probably no less than dozens."

"Even if you invite a few warriors to help you, it's impossible to fight against dozens of ronin."

"This kind of battle with no chance of winning will only lead to death in vain."

"So I'm sorry - no matter how much you pay, I will not fight this kind of battle to die for nothing, and I will not let my disciples fight this kind of battle."

"Please go back."

Assistant three: "Master Samurai..."

"Please go back!" Baosheng interrupted Zhu San with a much harsher and louder shout.

While interrupting Sukuzo's words, he cut his sharp eyes to Suzoku and Yushiro.

Startled by Baosheng's loud voice and sharp gaze, Sukuzo and Yushiro shrank their necks.

In the end—Sukezo and Yushiro left the reception room with dejected faces.

After the two left the guest room, Baosheng asked a disciple who was still in the sword hall to escort them out of the sword hall.

After the two farmers left, Ogata finally spoke the first words since the two farmers began to talk about their experiences.

"Lord Baosheng." Ogata turned his head and said to Baosheng beside him, "It's getting late now. It's almost time for me to retire first."

"Yes." Baosheng Chong Xufang smiled, "Mashima-sama, thank you for your hard work today too!"

...

...

After leaving the Hosho Sword Gym, Suzozo and Yushiro walked down the street with disappointment on their faces.

"Sure enough, the salary is still too low..." Yushiro lowered his head and sobbed.

The assistant on the side was also silent.

They paid too little—everyone in their village knew this.

If their village is rich enough to throw a lot of money in the faces of those warriors, they believe that many warriors will be invited to help out.

But they can only dare to think about such things as "taking big money and throwing people in the face"...

"What should we do now..." Yushiro looked at Zhuzo beside him in a daze, "The gang of ronin are coming soon... and the two of us have only invited a samurai until now That's all..."

"People who went to other cities and towns probably didn't invite many samurai."

"With so few warriors, can they stop those ronin?"

Zuo San was silent again.

Although they don't know how to fight or the art of war, they can still do simple arithmetic.

The number of ronin who wanted to attack their village is unknown, and it is very likely that there are dozens of them.

And these villagers basically have no fighting power. The only ones who can stand against those rogues are the samurai they invite.

And if they can finally invite 10 warriors, they will be thankful...

No matter how you look at it, their village will definitely lose now...

"It would be great if there was a samurai who could ride a thousand horses willing to come and save us..." Zhu San smiled wryly, and said this almost delusional words.

Just as he finished speaking, a young voice suddenly sounded behind them:

"Hey! You two!"

Suzawa and Yushiro were taken aback for a moment, then turned around.

It was a familiar figure that had just been seen.

It was the young warrior who had been sitting next to the owner of the sword gym just now, but his name was unknown.

The young samurai walked slowly to Suzo and Yushiro, and then continued:

"My name is Goro Mashima."

"Tell me in detail what the wanderers in your village have missed."

*****

*****

PS: The plot in the last chapter is actually a historical event.

In history, Hasegawa really used the public funds that Huo paid to the thieves to speculate in coins for the sake of the people.

I have also popularized science with you before. Japan in the Edo period had three types of currencies: gold, silver, and copper.

It is similar to the three currencies of US dollar, euro and Japanese yen circulating in the market at the same time. Then the exchange rates of these three currencies are constantly changing.

Hasegawa took advantage of the fact that the exchange rate between currencies is constantly fluctuating, and he kept buying and selling coins, and earned enough money to operate the Renjiao Depot by speculating on coins.

Then he was caught by Matsudaira Sadanobu.

In real history, Matsudaira Sadanobu did not deal with Hasegawa very much. One very important reason is that Hasegawa was single-handedly promoted by the previous generation of Naka Tanuma Yiji, so Hasegawa can be regarded as Tanuma Yiji's close minister. In Japan, which pays attention to interpersonal relationships, this is quite a terrible thing.

However, in the real history, although Matsudaira Jonobu discovered this secret of Hasegawa, he did not do anything to Hasegawa. Matsudaira Jonobu released Hasegawa, and let Hasegawa continue to lead the Huofu Thief Kai and continue to operate the Renzujiao .

By the way: The old Nakatanuma Yiji of the previous generation is also a pretty legendary figure. I will introduce it to you later. In today's small class, I will share with you some popular science content that all color critics must be interested in: the medicine in the Edo period that can add to the fun of that kind of thing. And how people in the Edo period bought this medicine by express delivery.

That's right, there were express delivery in the Edo period.

Please see "Writer's Words" below↓↓↓