The Black Samurai was an ancient warrior who asked the great swordsmith Masamune to craft a powerful sword.
Returning to NHK, he portrayed Saitō Yoshitatsu in the 1973 taiga drama Kunitori Monogatari. He has also appeared as Sanada Yukimura in Tokugawa Ieyasu (1983), and as the same warrior in Dokuganryū Masamune (1987).
Two light novel series were adapted based on the game, the first written by Jōji Kamio and published by GoodsTrain while the second is written by Hack and Masamune Yotsuya and is published by Harvest.
He was active during the Einin, Shōwa and Enkyō periods, generally acknowledged to be the teacher of master swordsmiths Masamune, Yukiimitsu and Norishige.
As an actor, he has portrayed people as varied as 20th century Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka (in the 1983 film Shōsetsu Yoshida Gakkō) and 16th century samurai Katakura Kagetsuna (in the 1987 NHK Taiga drama Dokuganryū Masamune).