Shintaro the Samurai.

Back after the introduction of television when we were youngsters, there was a plethora of “B Grade” tele-series from the USA centering around Cowboys and Indians or War adventures…Like; The Texas Rangers, Roy Rogers, etc in the former genre, or “Combat” in the latter. WE kids used to pick a side we wanted to represent and then set about ambushing the others with whoops and yelps as we dove about the bushes and buildings of the old quarry where we played most of these games.

But a strange thing happened..almost overnight with the sudden appearance of a Japanese series of heroic warrior called ; “Shintaro..The Samurai” and our game of choice switched from the American adventures to the more oriental and exotic Japanese series. This included the casting away of the mock rifles and Tommy guns in exchange for quite individualistic wooden swords, cut from a conveniently shaped branch of the many wild oleander bushes that dotted the gullies around…one boy put his very life in danger by cutting his mother’s broom-handle in half!…along with daggers and stiff cardboard “star-knives” used by the “Ninjas” in their incessant hunting down of “The Samurai” as he roamed the country side of Nippon righting wrongs and decimating the apparently evil Ninjas!

There were two types of Ninjas, the notorious Black Ninjas, of which there were legion, but only one “White” (or rather; Grey) Ninja..; “Tombei the Mist”, the sidekick of The Samurai.
There was also a young boy who always got into trouble and had to be rescued at great risk, his name was “Shūsaku” and he was often captured by Shintaro’s enemies..the climax of any one of those stories being the rescue of the boy, commanding with the discovery of his where-abouts with a cry of ; “SHUSAKU!!” and the subsequent swordfight to the heart-warming reuniting of the friends.

These details are important to note, as the words and actions figured heavily in the mimmiking of the play, we would practice the arts of disappearing among the camoflage, leaping backwards up a height (as shown in the series with reversed action camera-work) and becoming expert at flicking with rapid action the ubiquitous star-knives, accompanied with appropriate noises.. sound effects played a major role in all the games, from a staccato’d ; “rat-a-tat-tat-tat” for the gunfire in the war games to a more subdued ; “sh-sh-sh-sh-sh.” for the flicking of the star-knives….and as there being only one Shintaro, one Tombei the Mist and the boy didn’t even figure in the list of characters, and so there was great competition as to whom on any one day would be chosen to play Shintaro, whereas many could be Black Ninjas..not that that role wasn’t gleefully taken up by the most egregious of boys who were then given free-rein to act cruelty in the striking of their mock, wooden katana swords with wanton brutality. But in reality, these wooden swords were almost harmless due to a self-imposed code of ethics that demanded a softening of the blow if the opposition was decidedly “killed”…or had been ambushed and peppered with the stiff-cardboard Star-knives after a cry of ; “Samuri or Die!!” sealing the fate of the victim.

The choosing of who to play Shintaro was done after a audition of the contenders showed they could act out the role of the great warrior with commanding respect…Most of our gang had the chance to be Shintaro, except Maris..his short, fat, waddling physique didn’t really fit the impression we had of the warrior, but in deference to fair play, he was given the chance to plead his case with an enactment of a regular scene in the series, where Shintaro, confronting a situation would step quick and agilely forwardly to confront his aggressor.

The rest of us stood in a line while Maris played out the action. . .

Maris, grasping the hilt of his katana with his left hand, made two sudden steps forward, and with a look of angry surprise on his face, forcefully gasped the familiar one word breathed monotone sounds that accompanied the action..”Ohh…SHUSAKU !!”….and fair enough, Maris could very well have got the part, if not for the sudden sound that filled the silence between action and decision….a soft but forceful fart…the collective of boys adjudicating the audition stood in reflective silence for several moments, and then as if on cue, spoke as one simultaneously…..”Nah”..

This exotic game lasted for the whole year, until one of the group, a new boy named John, found in the detritus of the quarry a 3ft x 1/2 inch length of steel wire cable..which against the other’s protest that such a “sword” could inflict harm if forcefully struck…the complaint was ignored, and not long after this general protest, the point was proven when John walloped Willy Wilson so hard on the arm, a horrendous bruise was made…It was about then, after serious complaint was made of our game by the mothers collective that we toned down the action of the whole Japanese warrior theme and with the introduction of “Bonanza” went back to Cowboys and Indians.