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The Japanese Swordmaker
Also known as {The Japanese Sword Maker}
(1913) United States of America
B&W : One reel
Directed by [?] Bertram Bracken?
Cast: (unknown)
Méliès Star Films [American] production; distributed by [?] The Vitagraph Company of America through The General Film Company, Incorporated? / Produced by Gaston Méliès. / Released 27 October 1913. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The production was shot on-location in Japan.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? A powerful Daimyo of Japan, wishing to possess the finest weapon in the realm, summons the leading sword makers of the land. Their samples fail to please. Kami, the Daimyo’s favorite, has just received a sword of great excellence from Sato, a reclusive but upright maker, and so pleased is he with it that he presents Sato to the Daimyo. Sato gets the order, much to the disgust of Bobu, one of the rejected bidders. To frustrate Sato’s success, Bobu resorts to trickery. He forces Sato’s apprentice to steal the exact measurements and design of the sword while in the process of making. With these he makes a duplicate. In time the master sword is completed and Sato’s private trademark placed upon it. The highly tempered steel passes Sato’s rigid test of the iron bar. All is in readiness to deliver it to the Daimyo next day. Sato and his wife guard it like a treasure and upon retiring that night, place it between them. Nobu steals into the house in the dead of night and carefully removing the sword from between the sleeping couple, substitutes his own of like appearance but inferior quality. Next day the Daimyo receives Sato in court. An iron bar is brought for the test. Sato makes the test. The blade breaks. He is dismissed in disgrace. Sato returns home dejected. He shows the broken blade to his daughter, who notices that there is no trademark thereon. The truth dawns upon them, but it is now too late for explanations. His professional reputation and business are ruined. He suffers his calvary in that former friends and admirers pass him unnoticed on the streets. And Kami, the Daimyo’s favorite, returns his own splendid sword made by Sato as a thing unworthy. In desperation Sato would commit Hara-kiri, but is saved in the nick of time by his wife and daughter. The family move from town to escape ridicule. In new environments he fails to find work and his sick wife to lessen the burden, herself commits Hara-kiri. Five years later finds Sato and his daughter returned to their native village under an assumed name. They conduct a prosperous fan business and one of their customers, a young nobleman, just returned from abroad, woos and asks the hand of the girl in marriage. Without revealing his name he takes his fiancée and Sato to his home, where, to the latter’s surprise and astonishment, he discovers in the boy’s father, his former friend and patron, Kami. And in Kami’s possession he finds the sword made for the Daimyo, which he proves by the trademark. Nobu had sold it to the favorite. Nobu is sent for and his life is spared only on the condition that he would confess all to the Daimyo. And the next day Sato’s sword passes the test before the Daimyo. Nobu is placed under arrest, Sato restored to favor, and the engagement of Sato’s daughter and Kami’s son consented to by the Daimyo.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Japan - Weapons: Swords
Listing updated: 31 December 2024.
References: Tarbox-Lost pp. 91, 142; Thompson-Star p. 235 : Website-IMDb.
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