by Andrea Grunert

In Kubi (Japan, 2023), based on the actor-director’s eponymous novel, Kitano Takeshi (1) plays one of the most colourful figures in Japanese history: Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi (1537-1598) is regarded as the second of the three “Great Unifiers” of Japan after a long period of civil war. Not only an eminent historical figure, Hideyoshi has also inspired folk tales, kabuki plays, manga, novels, television dramas and films. According to Susan Westhafer Furukawa, there has been since his death “a confluence of writing and media about Hideyoshi” (2). As early as 1626, Oze Hoan published The Records of the Taikō (Taikōki), a 22-volume biography that became the basis for many of the stories written about Hideyoshi over the last four hundred years.
One aspect that could explain his continuing popularity is Hideyoshi’s route to power – from peasant origins to the most powerful man in Japan. In his newspaper serialization Taikō: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan (Shinsho Taikōki, 1939-1942), Yoshikawa Eiji puts great emphasis on Hideyoshi’s adolescence and the early years of his career, addressing values such as loyalty and commitment. In post-war Japan, Hideyoshi as a creative spirit who overcame divisions in society became a model for the salaryman samurai, mirroring the social and cultural transitions of the time (3). In his novel Shinshi Taikōki (1968), Shiba Ryōtaro emphasizes the mercantile spirit of both Hideyoshi and Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), the first of the three “Great Unifiers”.
Works of literature are inevitably a mixture of historical accuracy and imagination, and this is obviously also true for the many films and television films made about Hideyoshi or in which he figures as a supporting character. Two taiga dorama, the annual year-long historical drama television series, have been produced about Hideyoshi (4): Taikōki (1963) and Hideyoshi (1996). Osone Tatsuo directed Taikōki – The Saga of Hideyoshi (Taikōki, 1958), an adaptation of Yoshikawa’s novel, and in 1987, Okamoto Kihachi directed a two-part television film that also had the title Taikōki. Hideyoshi is one of the two main characters in Mitani Kōki’s The Kiyosu Conference (Kiyosu kaigi, 2013; 5) and an important character in a number of other films such as Love Under the Crucifix (Ogin-sama, Tanaka Kinuyo, 1962), Warring Clans (Sengoku yarō, Okamoto Kihachi, 1963), Love and Faith (Ogin-sama, Kumai Kei, 1978), Death of a Tea Master (Sen no Rikyu: Honkakubō ibun, Kumai Kei, 1989), Rikyū (Teshigahara Hiroshi, 1989), Princess Gō (Gō-hime, Teshigahara Hiroshi, 1992), Ask This of Rikyū (Rikyū ni tazuneyo, Tanaka Misutoshi, 2013). The list of famous actors who have played Hideyoshi is equally long and includes Satō Makoto (Warring Clans), Mifune Toshirō (Love and Faith), Ogata Ken (the taiga drama Hideyoshi), Yamazaki Tsutomu (Rikyū), Ōmori Nao (Ask This of Rikyū), Ōizumi Yō (The Kiyosu Conference) and Iseya Yūsuke in the television production Onna Nobunaga (2013), directed by Takeuchi Hideki.

The narrative structure
Kubi is not a biopic. The action starts in 1579 with the end of an unsuccessful rebellion led by Akari Murashige (1535-1586), one of Oda Nobunaga’s retainers, and it ends in 1582 with Nobunaga’s death. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, at that time still called Hashiba Hideyoshi, and Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582) are two other retainers of Nobunaga (Kase Ryō), who is at the height of his power. The film deals briefly with Mitsuhide’s rebellion, during which Nobunaga was killed while Mitsuhide was defeated thirteen days later by Hideyoshi. One should note that all three “Great Unifiers” figure in Kubi, the third being Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), who achieved unification in the early 17th century (6).
The film starts with images of war: a great number of dead bodies floating in the water, crabs climbing out of the bloody neck of a headless body. Numerous shots and sequences reveal the horrors of war throughout the film including the bird’s eye view of a battlefield strewn with dead bodies. Despite these and other moments of bloodshed, Kitano is concerned mainly with treachery and intrigues. Nobunaga stirs up rivalry among his retainers and generals, deliberately not naming a successor and thereby implying that all of them the chance to prove themselves worthy of the task.
As in other Japanese historical films, there are many scenes showing a lord discussing with his retainers or generals. When they are not in one of these official meetings, Kubi’s main characters are usually busy scheming. Murashige (Endō Kenichi), who has found refuge with Mitsuhide (Nishijima Hidetoshi) after his failed rebellion, begs his friend to rise up against Nobunaga. Nobunaga orders Mitsuhide to kill Ieyasu (Kobayashi Kaoru). And Hideyoshi wants to remove all those involved in his intrigues. In addition to these and other well-known historical figures, the film includes subplots with both historical and fictional characters. The most important of these are created around the storyteller Sorori Shinzaemon (Kimura Yūichi; 7) and the peasant Naniwa Mosuke (Nakamura Shidō II). The former ninja Shinzaemon spies for Hideyoshi. Mosuke, a fictional character, wants to become a samurai at all costs, the recurring motive of a character in numerous jidai geki, including Kurosawa Akira’s Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai, 1954). However, unlike the courageous Kikuchyio (Toshirō Mifune), the peasant who dreams of becoming a samurai in Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Mosuke is a coward. Moreover, he kills his friend Tame and steals the head of an enemy general that Tame has cut off, and he hopes to be rewarded. And whereas Kikuchiyo is a complex character whose development from would-be-samurai to selfless fighter for justice is a main topic in Kurosawa’s film, Mosuke does not evolve but stubbornly follows his dream of becoming a samurai, obsessed with the idea of cutting off a general’s head as a trophy (8).

History and imagination: the main characters
The subplots and fictitious characters enrich the narrative of the film, which also contains many references to Kubi’s historical context. The presence of Europeans is evoked in two brief sequences in which Portuguese monks, visitors at Nobunaga’s residence, make their appearance (9). The military campaign against the Mori clan, ordered by Nobunaga and to be carried out by Hideyoshi, is also mentioned. The western-style velvet cape that Nobunaga wears on several occasions is part of an iconography associated with Nobunaga and perpetuated in a number of films, including Kurosawa Akira’s Kagemusha (1980).
It is usually said that Nobunaga committed seppuku at the Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto when Mitsuhide attacked him. In Kitano’s version however, the warlord dies a less honourable death. Convinced that his valet and bodyguard Yasuke (Soejima Jun) will disembowel himself, he offers to assist by beheading him. However, the African-born Yasuke (10) is not willing to follow the orders of his master nor to respect the rites of seppuku, and instead, he beheads Nobunaga with one swift movement of his sword, shouting angrily: “You yellow piece of shit.”
One could call Kitano’s interpretation and portrayal of Hideyoshi unconventional but undoubtedly original, starting with the fact that he plays Hideyoshi himself. Hideyoshi is generally described as a small man – perhaps suffering from rickets – with a wrinkled face who became bald at an early age. His nickname “Monkey” – “Saru” in Japanese – refers to his size and physiognomy and stature. In recent years, Ōmori Nao and Ōizumi Yō, who played the character in Ask This of Rikyu and The Kiyosu Conference respectively, are actors of slender build and thus similar to the usual image of Hideyoshi, their vivid acting style contributing to this perception. This is also the case for the tall and handsome Iseya Yūsuke, who played Hideyoshi in the miniseries Onna Nobunaga, the way he managed to wrinkle his face evoking the image of Hideyoshi, the monkey.
Kitano is much older than these actors, all of whom were born in the 1970s whereas Kitano was born in 1947. Moreover, he plays Hideyoshi as a rather clumsy person very much lacking vigour. By interpreting the role himself, Kitano underlines his refusal to follow conventional visions of Hideyoshi, and the differences are revealed not only physically but also by the absence of a variety of characteristics commonly associated with Japan’s second unifier, some of these characteristics having become established during Hideyoshi’s lifetime. As Susan Westhafer Furukawa puts it: “The first person to fictionalize Hideyoshi was Hideyoshi himself.” (11). Written nearly 350 years later, Yoshikawa’s novel incorporates characteristics such as loyalty and hard work, attributes that can serve as ideal values for readers and film viewers alike. In Osone’s Taikōki – The Saga of Hideyoshi, a digest version of the novel, Hideyoshi (Takada Kokichi) is depicted as an ambitious young man, a true self-made man and charismatic personality who prefers the society of commoners to those of samurai (12). This highly romanticized portrayal of Hideyoshi is heightened by the emphasis the film puts on filial duty. Hideyoshi’s ambition to become a samurai is paralleled by his strong desire to repay the debts he owes his mother (and elder sister), who made many sacrifices to help him.
Hideyoshi’s rise from humble origins to power became an inspiring tale for post-war Japan, as Shiba’s novel Shinshi Taikōki demonstrates. However, far from being idealized, Hideyoshi became an ambiguous figure as a result of critical approaches, as in Tsutsui Yasutaka’s satirical novella Yamazaki (13), and film directors also created critical interpretations of Hideyoshi’s heroic status. In Love under the Crucifix, Love and Faith, Death of a Tea Master, Rikyū, Ask This of Rikyū and Onna Nobunaga, Hideyoshi is depicted as selfish and materialistic, ambitious and despotic.
According to a Japanese saying, when asked what to do if a cuckoo does not want to sing, Nobunaga would have said: “Kill it!”, Hideoyshi: “Make it want to sing” and Ieyasu: “Wait for it to sing.” This saying reveals the different characteristics of the three men, referring in Hideyoshi’s case to his cleverness and charisma. Hideyoshi’s eloquence and political acumen are reflected in Mitani’s The Kiyosu Conference, which also emphasizes his intelligence and manipulative power. However, Kitano retains only the image of the schemer. He plays Hideyoshi as a brutish person, a Hideyoshi who does not coax the cuckoo to sing. He is a rather dull character, delegating duties to his more eloquent and capable half-brother Hidenaga, played by Ōmori Nao, who gives a far more vivid interpretation of Hideyoshi in Ask This of Rikyu. In one of Kubi’s very funny scenes, it is revealed that Hideyoshi is illiterate and depends largely on his brother’s abilities (14). However, he is shrewd and knows how to use and misuse other people to suit his own needs.
As in most of the films referred to in this article but with the exception of Taikōki – The Saga of Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi is depicted as a man of violence who has nothing of the leadership qualities suggested in Osone’s film from 1958 (15). In Kubi, a horrified Hidenaga declares : “You toy with the lives of people.” One difference from the cruel Hideyoshi in Onna Nobunaga is that Kitano’s Hideyoshi does not do the killing himself but delegates his murderous deeds to his subordinates and allies, a behaviour that contributes to the character’s ambiguity. The traditional image of Hideyoshi as a smooth talker, is perverted, and when Kitano’s Hideyoshi talks, it is often to give an order to kill.
Kubi means “neck”, and the bloody neck of the headless body shown in the opening sequence is an early indication of the violence in the period depicted by Kitano. The neck as the target of samurai swords is repeatedly evoked throughout the film. However, the word is not only used in the context of violence. The famous tea master Sen no Rikyū (Kishibe Ittokū) confides to Mitsuhide: “I wash my neck every morning. I will keep my kimono clean until the country is united.” A shrewd man, his secretive behaviour ensures that he literally keeps his head.
Compared to Kitano’s Hideyoshi, Nobunaga looks rather young (16) and is energetic if not hyperactive. Kase Ryō gives a perfect representation of the despotic and cruel leader suggested in the saying about the cuckoo. In Kubi, he is a true psychopath and not at all like the visionary Nobunaga of the recent television production Okehazama – Rise of Oda Nobunaga (Okehazama – Hao no tanjō, Kawake Shūnsaku, 2021). Kitano’s Nobunaga as played by Kase is not content simply to order killings as Hideyoshi does, and he also takes pleasure in humiliating – verbally and physically – and brutalizing his subjects. For example, he has Murashige bite off a ball of rice that he has put on the tip of his sword, turning the weapon around in his mouth until blood gushes out. In another scene, he brutally kicks and punches Mitsuhide.
Mitsuhide is referred to as “brooding and boring”, and it is with a constant expression of pain that Nishijima Hidetoshi plays the role of the man who in 1582 rebelled against his lord. He is portrayed as a loyal retainer who hesitates when urged by his lover Murashige to rise up against Nobunaga, and instead, he is pedantic in the way he follows the rules of his social class. In one scene, the two samurai are shown naked in bed. Murashige, the hunted rebel, touches Mitsuhide’s cheeks tenderly, but Mitsuhide thrusts his hand away, saying: “We are enemies. Behave accordingly.” However, Mitsuhide’s loyalty to his lord begins to waver when he learns that Nobunaga plans to have him killed. Ambition leads him to sacrifice Murashige (“The weight of ruling the land weighs heavier than the bond between two samurai.”), whom Mitsuhide has killed by his servants (17).

Power and performance
Homosexuality is one of the major topics in Kubi and is closely linked to questions of power and violence. Mitsuhide and Murashige are secret lovers while Nobunaga openly has sex with his young retainer Mori Ranmaru (Kanichiro; 18), being watched by Mitsuhide. The idea for a homosexual relationship between the two men stems from representations of Nobunaga and Ranmaru known from nanshoku literature (19) of the Edo period (1603-1868). Homosexual relations rarely figure in jidai geki, one exception being Oshima Nagisa’s Taboo (Gohatto, 1999), starring Kitano Takeshi. Kubi depicts an all-male universe in which the desire for power is stronger than sexual lust or sentimental feelings. Nobunaga promises Mitsuhide that he can become his successor if he declares his love for him. However, these are apparently mere words.
Kase Ryō’s Nobunaga is a highly eccentric figure and the opposite of both the crude Hideyoshi and the hesitant Mitsuhide with the latter’s constant expression of displeasure.
Nobunaga lives in accordance with the motto: “From the moment you’re born, life is one big joke.” Wearing a European velvet cape and colourful kimonos, he is reminiscent of an entertainer. References to theatre abound in Kubi. The storyteller Shinzaemon and a group of performers accompanying the troops of soldiers are a further link to the world of theatrical entertainment. In one sequence, a Noh play is performed. Such elements are often used in jidai geki, and here they provide an intertextual link to Kitano’s roots in the theatre as well as suggesting that many politicians are not unlike performers dealing with illusions.
In Kubi, humour contributes considerably to this element of performance and entertainment. Humour is both verbal and physical, supported by the comic talent of Kitano, Ōmori, Nakamura Shidō II and Asano Tadanobu, who plays Kurobe Kanbei (1546-1604), one of Hideyoshi’s advisors and known historically as his chief strategist. The witty repartee between Hideyoshi, Hidenaga and Kanbei presents them as a trio of comedians. In one scene, Hidenaga, in conversation with the samurai Koroku and Nakagawa, pretends to be deeply shaken by Nobunaga’s death. Hideyoshi and Shinzaemon watch the scene from behind a wooden wall and laugh their heads off at Hidenaga’s convincing performance, with Ōmori’s rather exaggerated acting signalling to the viewer that he is only pretending and that the tears he is shedding are crocodile tears. The presence of the two characters hiding from Koroku and Nakagawa even heightens the theatrical dimension of the scene. At a different point in the film, Hideyoshi asks Koroku: “Can you and Nakagawa die together?” He immediately corrects this slip of the tongue: “I mean lead the attack together?” Behind the joke lurks deadly seriousness that reveals Hideyoshi’s penchant for violence. This is also the case in the scene in which Shinzaemon has cheated at gambling. Hideyoshi intervenes, ordering: “Stick your neck out.” Instead of decapitating the former ninja, Hideyoshi starts laughing: “Just kidding.” A little later he sends Shinzaemon to the village of the Kōga ninja, saying nonchalantly to his brother: “He will die anyway.”
The role of the peasant Mosuke also has comical elements that contribute to the film’s burlesque aspect. A horo (20) attached to his back, he staggers rather than walking. However, he does not discard the horo, in the belief that wearing it makes him a samurai. Samurai codes are also mocked in the scene showing the seppuku of Lord Muneharu, watched by Hideyoshi, Hidenaga and Kanbei. Hideyoshi, growing impatient, shouts: “Hurry up and die!” while Kanbei reminds him: “No, no, my lord. The last rites of a samurai …” Hideyoshi’s retort that he is a peasant shows his lack of respect for samurai conventions as well as his selfishness and disregard of others. After Mitsuhide’s revolt has been put down, the heads of the dead are on display. Hideyoshi recognizes Mosuke’s head but not Mitsuhide’s. Enraged, he kicks the severed head, making it fall to the ground and revealing once again his disrespect for the dead and the codes and customs of the warrior class. The display of the heads is also a reminder that death is the great leveller and makes no distinction between samurai and peasants. In Kubi. there is nothing honourable about death. Murashige, a prisoner in a palanquin that is only a wooden box, is taken away by Mitsuhide’s servants, who push it into a ravine, the samurai being discarded like some object that is no longer needed.

Conclusion
Beginning in the late 1920s, the traditional image of samurai has been tarnished in a great number of jidai geki and the codes of behaviour of the warrior class – closely linked to matters of honour and loyalty – have been called into question. Humour is used as a means to deconstruct the ideal of the warrior class in Yamanaka Sadao’s The Million Ryō Pot (Tange Sazen yowa: hyakuman ryō no tsubo, 1935). Unlike Mitani in The Kiyosu Conference, another historical comedy revealing political intrigues and treachery, Kitano mixes humour with violence and even gore elements. Keeping a fine balance between violence and humour, Kubi, both blood-drenched and funny, is a highly entertaining retelling of history. Challenging the image of Hideyoshi by means of humour, Kitano nevertheless depicts him as sympathetic. However, his Hideyoshi also has a cunning and cruel side, and behind the image of the unsophisticated peasant, Kitano unmasks the tyrant and warns against autocratic behaviour, something that remains a threat in present-day societies.

Notes
(1) Names are written according to Japanese conventions: the family name before the given name.
(2) Susan Westhafer Furukawa, The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan, Cambridge, Mass./London: Harvard University Asia Centre, 2022, p. 1.
(3) See Westhafer Furukawa, op. cit., chapter 3: “The Salaryman Samurai: Hideyoshi as Business Model”, p. 84-121.
(4) Taiga dorama (literally “Big River dramas”) have been produced since 1963 by Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, which can be translated as Japan Broadcasting Corporation. A taiga drama on Toyotomi Hidenaga, Hideyoshi’s half-brother, as central character is planned for 2026.
(5) See my article on The Kiyosu conference as a battlefield.
(6) Tokugawa Ieyasu achieved the unification of Japan after defeating the Toyotomi and their allies at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Ieyasu became shōgun in 1603, and the Tokugawa family ruled over Japan from 1603 until 1868.
(7) Sorori Shinzaemon is said to be the founder of rakugo storytelling. However, it is not clear whether he really lived or is a figure from the realm of legends.
(8) There are many similarities between Mosuke and Tōbei (Ozawa Eitarō) in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari, 1953), which is set in the same period as Kubi. Tōbei is a peasant whose dream of becoming a samurai becomes an obsession. He also kills to gain possession of the head of an important warrior. Unlike Mosuke, Tōbei is rewarded for his cleverness and made a samurai. In the end, however, he renounces being a samurai and returns to his village. He does this out of love for his wife, while Mosuke is relieved that his wife and children have been killed. In this manner, they do not impede his aspirations.
(9) The first Portuguese ships arrived in Japan in 1543.
(10) Yasuke, presumably born around 1555, arrived in Japan with the Portuguese accompanying the Jesuit Alessandro Valignano on his first visit to Japan in 1579. In Japan, he became the valet and bodyguard of Nobunaga. According to historical sources, he survived the Honnō-ji incident. However, his subsequent life and the date of his death remain unknown.
(11) Susan Westhafer Furukawa, op. cit., p. 35.
(12) Note that Yoshikawa’s novel covers Hideyoshi’s life only from the age of 6 to the age of 49. Kitano’s film ends even before in the early 1560s.
(13) See Susan Westhafer Furukawa (op. cit.) for further details about the perception of Hideyoshi in Japanese culture since the 1950s. Westhafer Furukawa puts great emphasis on literature and also on matters such as tourist sites related to Hideyoshi. Film is a peripheral topic in her book and she deals with it only superficially.
(14) Hidenaga (1540-1591), always loyal to his half-brother, is regarded by some historians as his brain and right-hand man.
(15) Especially at the end of his reign, Hideyoshi acted with extreme brutality, for example the seppuku to which the famous tea master Sen no Rikyū was condemned, the execution of the whole family of Hideyoshi’s nephew Hidetsugu and the savage executions of Christians. Historians can only speculate about the reasons for these acts. See Mary Elizabeth Berry, Hideyoshi, Cambridge, Mass./London, The Council on East Asia Studies & Harvard University Press, 1982, p. 222-228.
(16) Kase, born in 1974, is 27 years Kitano’s junior.
(17) This is fictional, and in reality Murashige died in 1586, four years after Nobunaga and Mitsuhide.
(18) Mori Ranmaru was presumably born in 1565.
(19) Nanshoku, literally “male colours”, is a form of literature dealing with male-to-male sexuality in pre-modern Japan.
(20) A horo is a cloak or garment put over a framework of wicker, bamboo or whalebone which was attached to the back of the armour of a samurai and enhanced the appearance of the mounted warrior or highlighted his rank. It also had a protective function against arrows. In Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu, Tōbei thinks that wearing a suit of armour and owning a spear are enough to be considered a samurai.