On the morning of Monday 26 December 1988, in the movie village (eiga-mura) located in the mountains of Kanami, Ryûtarô Gan (age 24) - eldest son of Shintarô Katsu - stabbed Yukio Katô (age 34) in the neck with a katana long sword, while performing in an action scene for this film. Katô was taken unconscious to the Okayama University Hospital (Okayama Daigaku Igakubu Fuzoku-byôin), where he died as a result of massive blood loss from the neck wound. Hiroshima Prefectural Police determined that the incident was one of professional negligence causing death (gyômujô-kashitsu chishi).
Though Shintaro Katsu is sighted, he not only performs as the blind Zatoichi with his eyes closed, he also performs all swordplay with real swords and keeps his eyes closed for authenticity.
This is the twenty-sixth of 26 movies to star Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi.
In the film they refer to a character receiving a hook. This refers to the Japanese jitte, which translated means 'ten hands', and was a weapon carried by police in the Edo Period of Japan and was given to Constables to denote their rank.
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