Rurouni Kenshin

Kenshin Himura vs Seta Sojiro

This performance recreates the iconic duel between Himura Kenshin and Seta Sojiro in the garden from the Rurouni Kenshin film series, created by the samurai performance group KATANAYA ICHI.

A short, original 1-minute performance featuring 2 performers.

Rurouni Kenshin: A Samurai at the Turning Point of Japanese History

About Rurouni Kenshin

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The story begins in 1878, the 11th year of the Meiji era in Japan, and follows a former assassin of the Bakumatsu, known as Hitokiri Battosai. After his work against the bakufu, he becomes Himura Kenshin, a wandering swordsman who protects the people of Japan with a vow never to take another life.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Film That Changed Samurai Action

Released in 2012, Rurouni Kenshin is a film that significantly changed the style of samurai action in Japan. The action director was Kenji Tanigaki.

Tanigaki trained in Hong Kong under action star Donnie Yen, where he learned a fast-paced, high-impact style of action filmmaking. Traditional Japanese period dramas typically emphasized slower, formal movements, but this film introduced quick, continuous exchanges and a strong sense of speed.

The film also brought a new approach to the use of weapons. The main character, Himura Kenshin, is a swordsman who has sworn never to kill and uses a special reversed-blade sword. To portray this realistically, the production used safe rubber swords instead of wooden props.

In traditional sword choreography, performers avoid actual contact and rely on angles and movement to create the illusion of real strikes. In this film, however, the action was designed to allow real contact, creating a more dynamic and realistic sense of motion.

Wire-assisted jumps and movements were also added, producing visuals unlike anything seen in Japanese films before. Since its release, this style has become widely recognized in the world of Japanese samurai action.

Many people became interested in sword choreography after watching Rurouni Kenshin. The film drew a new generation into the world of the samurai.

Our Performance

This performance recreates one of the most iconic scenes in the Rurouni Kenshin film series: the duel between Himura Kenshin and Seta Sojiro in the garden. It is the moment when the protagonist, Kenshin, clearly suffers his first true defeat in the story.

In our performance, we do not use wire action. Instead, we challenge ourselves to express the core of this scene—its speed, timing, continuous exchanges, and the psychological tension of being driven into a corner—using only the human body. While we usually perform with wooden swords, for this piece we use rubber blades, in order to faithfully embody the philosophy and expression of the original work.