Japan's most talked about theatrical production of 2009,
Musashi brings together popular actors Fujiwara Tatsuya and Oguri Shun onstage and acclaimed theater director Ninagawa Yukio and famed playwright Inoue Hisashi offstage for a brilliant reinterpretation of the age-old tale of dueling samurai. Two of Ninagawa's most frequent stars, Fujiwara and Oguri previously shared stage in the 2003 production of
Hamlet. This time they match swords as storied swordsmen Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro, who famously clashed in 1612 in a duel at Ganryu Island.
Starting where most end, Musashi opens with the eponymous hero dealing the winning blow against Kojiro, but in Inoue's witty retelling - a script he had been developing for over 20 years - the defeated does not die. Instead, the rivals meet again six years later at a temple, and Kojiro challenges Musashi to a rematch. Setting the duel date three days ahead, the two both stay at the temple, and meditate on how to slay the other. Musashi was staged from March to May 2009 at Tokyo's Saitama Arts Theater and Osaka's Umeda Arts, and also co-stars Suzuki Anne and Shiraishi Kayoko.
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