The 8 greatest stars who created chanbara
Period films are also known as chanbara (sword fighting) films.
The term chanbara comes from the onomatopoeia “chan-chan-bara-bara,” which is used to describe fights using swords. Another more literal term is “tate” which means “sword fight.”
Chanbara became very popular when movies were first filmed in Japan.
Matsunosuke Onoe is considered Japan’s first movie star. He became widely popular under the nickname of “Medama no Matchan.”
Tsumasaburo Bando, Ryunosuke Tsukigata, Utaemon Ichikawa, Kazuo Hasegawa, Chiezo Kataoka, Kanjuro Arashi, and Denjiro Okochi who all followed in his footsteps, also known as the Seven Swordsmen, became the leading movie stars of the pre- and postwar periods.
Check out the unique chanbara style of each star.
