Ten (manga)

Ten: Tenhō-dōri no Kaidanji (Japanese: 天 天和通りの快男児, lit. Ten: The Nice Guy on the Path of Tenhō[lower-alpha 1]) is a mahjong-centric Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. It was first published in 1989 during Japan's economic boom, when gambling manga became popular.[3] Considered a hit in Japan, it was followed by a prequel focusing on one of the supporting characters Akagi in 1991.[4]

Ten: Tenhō-dōri no Kaidanji
Cover of the first volume
天 天和通りの快男児
GenreGambling,[1] mahjong[2]
Manga
Written byNobuyuki Fukumoto
Published byTakeshobo
ImprintKindai Mahjong Comics
MagazineKindai Mahjong Gold
DemographicSeinen
Original run1989 – 2002
Volumes18
Manga
Manga
HERO: Akagi no Ishi o Tsugu Otoko
Written by
  • Jirō Maeda
  • Nobuyuki Fukumoto (collaboration)
Published byTakeshobo
MagazineKindai Mahjong
DemographicSeinen
Original runOctober 1, 2009 – present
Volumes16
Television drama
Directed by
  • Takashi Ninomiya
  • Keisuke Shibata
  • Ryō Miyawaki
Produced by
  • Taku Matsumoto (TV Tokyo)
  • Yūta Kurachi (TV Tokyo)
  • Eiji Shibuya
  • Yasuko Kobayashi
Written by
  • Nonji Nemoto
  • Yōsuke Masaike
  • Masaki Miyamoto
Music byKuniyuki Morohashi
Studio
  • TV Tokyo
  • The icon
Original networkTV Tokyo
Original run October 4, 2018 – December 29, 2019
Episodes17 + 1
Manga
Yamima no Mamiya
Written byNobuyuki Fukumoto
Published byTakeshobo
MagazineKindai Mahjong
DemographicSeinen
Original runJuly 1, 2019 – present
Volumes2

Initially, the series began as a slice-of-life drama with mahjong elements, but gradually shifted to a full mahjong gambling series. With this work, Fukumoto distanced away from the traditional human drama mold and broke new ground.

A sequel series, set 3 years after the events of Ten, titled HERO: Akagi no Ishi o Tsugu Otoko, written and illustrated by Jirō Maeda with Fukumoto's collaboration, began in Kindai Mahjong in October 2009. Another sequel, set 20 years after the events of Ten, titled Yamima no Mamiya, written and illustrated by Fukumoto, began in Kindai Mahjong in July 2019.

Plot

The story begins when Hiroyuki Igawa, who has a deep knowledge of the "logic" of mahjong, meets Takashi Ten, who runs a mahjong contracting business. Ten is a rep player with an unrivaled competitive edge and a strong will to win, and Hiroyuki begins to admire Ten and immerse himself in the world of mahjong. Eventually, Ten and Hiroyuki meet legendary mahjong player Shigeru Akagi, known as the "Man of the Divine Realm," as well as some of the best current mahjong players in the Kansai area, Katsumi Harada and Mitsui Soga, as they take on the challenge of fighting to determine the top of the Japanese underground mahjong world.

Characters

East
Takashi Ten (天 貴史, Ten Takashi)
Portrayed by: Gorō Kishitani (live-action TV series)
A gambler (rep player) with an unparalleled competitive edge and a strong will. Despite having a history of winning against mahjong opponents through cheating, he is good-natured, loyal and compassionate, and at some point he changes his mind and acts from the standpoint of the weak. His kindness is sometimes directed at his opponents, and he occasionally acts to his detriment in order to preserve their honor, with the scars on his body being the remnants of this behavior. He is in a polygamous marriage, with two wives.
Hiroyuki Igawa (井川 ひろゆき, Igawa Hiroyuki)
Portrayed by: Yuki Furukawa (live-action TV series)
A young man who plays reasonably logical mahjong. In the first chapter, he appears as an entrance exam student, and as the story progresses, he ages to that of a university student and then a working man. Nicknamed Hiro, he initially played mahjong just to earn some money, but he gradually started to seek better opponents. He is drawn to the world of serious rep players and admires and respects Ten and Akagi with all his heart. Extremely intelligent, his ability to calculate and observe like a computer has impressed even Ten and other veteran gamblers, but he has a tendency to rely on logic too much and act too cautiously, which has often caused him to be outsmarted by his opponents.
Shigeru Akagi (赤木 しげる, Akagi Shigeru)
Portrayed by: Eisaku Yoshida (live-action TV series)
A legendary gambler who relies only on his own abilities without any support. He once reigned at the top of the underworld for about three years, but retired early because of his principle that position and fame would bind him. He has been called "a man of the divine realm," "fierce god," and "a once-in-a-century genius," and has countless legends to his credit. A fearless mahjong player with a natural ability to combine calmness and brilliance, he has a spirit of extraordinary wisdom and fearlessness towards death, as well as strong luck and intuition that is said to reach the godly realm. His view of life and death, in which he regarded himself as part of a larger cycle of life, and in which he dedicated himself to living his life "as Shigeru Akagi" without being bound by common sense or profit and loss, has become a source of discussion for many fans.
His childhood and young adulthood is described in the spin-off prequel Akagi, which has been made into V-Cinema films, an anime and a TV drama, and has become a popular work.
Ginji Asai (浅井 銀次, Asai Ginji)
Portrayed by: Yōji Tanaka (live-action TV series)
Once known as "Triple Run Ginji", he is the best player in Tokyo living in Shinjuku. His signature weapon is marking certain tiles. Despite his old age, he has a high level of perception that shows no signs of declining, and he has a crafty marking technique that goes beyond ordinary people's way of thinking. Due to the nature of his skills, he hates being exposed to the public eye and has never participated in major events.
Ken Igarashi (五十嵐 健, Igarashi Ken)
Portrayed by: Hidetoshi Hoshida (live-action TV series)
A young man who graduated from junior high school and claims that mahjong is his only redeeming feature. Like Hiroyuki, he is a young player participating in the East-West battle. He looks up to Ten as his older brother. He has a strong desire to rise in the world, and although he is a West player, in the East-West tournament, he stays with the East camp, which is at a disadvantage because of its thin layer of players.
Hitoshi Washio (鷲尾 仁, Washio Hitoshi)
One of the "North's Top Two" and the best player in Hokkaido. In the East-West tournament, he fights with Hiroyuki for a place in the finals. It appears that he and Akagi were close friends, and he went to Hawaii with Kanamitsu.
Shūzō Kanamitsu (金光 修蔵, Kanamitsu Shūzō)
Portrayed by: Ryōsei Tayama (live-action TV series)
One of the "North's Top Two" along with Washio. He is the chief priest of Seikan Temple, a mahjong temple in Iwate Prefecture in Tōhoku region. Like Washio, he has been close to Akagi for a long time, and because of this relationship, he becomes a monk in the final arc who takes on the role of taking care of Akagi's personal affairs, but he somewhat regrets his decision to accept the role and is distressed by it.

West
Katsumi Harada (原田 克美, Harada Katsumi)
Portrayed by: Koji Matoba (live-action TV series)
The leader of a gang in Osaka, one of the leading gangs in the Kansai area, and the organizer of the East-West battle, being the head of West. He is the best active player in the game and has been called "the king of the active players" and "the second coming of Akagi." His murderous tactics have been called "man-slaying mahjong" by Ten, and his sharpness has been likened to a straight-edge Japanese sword. Despite being a ruthless and forceful man who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, his roots come from his fascination with mahjong, and in the final battle, in order to settle the score with Ten, he gave up his own interests and sought a two-player mahjong match with him.
Mitsui Soga (僧我 三威, Soga Mitsui)
Portrayed by: Denden (live-action TV series)
A legendary figure who won for more than ten years and was undefeated. Known as a "monster," he was the best player in the underworld until Akagi's appearance. Although he lacks Akagi's glamour and Harada's murderous spirit, he has an extremely high level of intuition that allows him to see the "darkness of mahjong" in a way that ordinary players cannot understand, and he has an uncanny ability to sneak up on players and attack them. After reigning as the lord of the underworld for over a decade, he retired, but his career was then blurred by the glamorous exploits of Akagi, who later also reigned over the underworld. Therefore, he has an almost hateful rivalry with Akagi, confronting him directly on many occasions.
Akutsu (阿久津)
Portrayed by: Takuya Nagaoka (live-action TV series)
A player from the San'in region who stays in the East-West finals. In fact, he was the only player to go undefeated in the East and West rounds.
Mitsui (三井)
Portrayed by: Noboru Kaneko (live-action TV series)
A player who remains in the finals but is at the mercy of Akagi's play.
Nangō (南郷)
A player from Hakata. In the second East-West preliminary match, he has the advantage in every game, but is chipped apart in small ways by Soga's marked tiles in the first round, Ten's tenacity in the next round, and Hiroyuki's clever schemes in the last round.
Sakaguchi (坂口)
A player who speaks with a Kansai dialect and fights against Akagi in the first East-West preliminary match.
Yoshii (吉井)
A player who, on Harada's orders, is replaced in the middle of the game by Ogami due to faking a sickness.
Kei Ogami (尾神 桂, Ogami Kei)
An assassin prepared by Harada to counter Ten, he is a hitman-like player who prioritizes the task of defeating Ten rather than winning. Even Harada was impressed by his heretical tactics, admitting he doesn't feel his humanity and that he didn't expect him to be such a pro.

Miscellaneous
Sawada (沢田)
Portrayed by: Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi (live-action TV series)
One of the main characters in "Ten" in the early chapters. A chivalrous person full of humanity who yearns for the Toei yakuza of old. He discovered Hiroyuki's potential as a rep player when he sat down with him at a mahjong parlor and scouted him out. He used to have a wife and kids. Though he doesn't appear again after the beginning of the East-West tournament, he makes a reappearance in the spin-off series HERO.
Nakanishi (中西)
Portrayed by: Hajime Okayama (live-action TV series)
The owner of a ramen shop. He teams up with Ten and fights against Hiroyuki and Sawada.
Murota (室田)
Portrayed by: Kazuyuki Aijima (live-action TV series)
One of the best rep players in Osaka. His weapon of choice is "unloading mahjong", a technique that allows him to drop his opponent from the game under pressure. When Akagi received a request from a land shark to be a rep player, he is introduced by Murota to the team as his representative, making it appear that Akagi and Murota were close friends.
Urabe (浦部)
A professional rep player kept by the yakuza who appears in Akagi's recollections as someone he once fought.
Iwao Washizu (鷲巣 巌, Washizu Iwao)
The man who ruled Japan from behind the scenes in the late Showa era and appears in Akagi's recollections as someone he once fought.

Media

Manga

Ten: Tenhōdōri No Kaidanji is written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. The manga was serialized in Takeshobo's magazine Kindai Mahjong from 1989 to 2002. Takeshobo compiled its individual chapters into eighteen tankōbon volumes published from August 21, 1989 to April 27, 2002.[5][6] Takeshobo re-released the series into thirteen volumes published from July 31, 2015 to July 27, 2016.[7][8]

A spin-off series focusing on Hiroyuki and taking place 3 years after the events of the main story, HERO: Akagi no Ishi o Tsugu Otoko (HERO アカギの遺志を継ぐ男, lit. "HERO: A man who succeeds dying wishes of Akagi"), written and illustrated by Jirō Maeda, began serialization in Kindai Mahjong on October 1, 2009.[9]

In 2019, a "chapter 0" of a new manga titled Yamima no Mamiya (闇麻のマミヤ, lit. "Yami-Mahjong Fighter: Mamiya"), written by Fukumoto, was published in the June issue of Kindai Mahjong, released on May 1, 2019. The story is set 20 years after the events of Ten.[10] The series started a regular serialization since the August issue of Kindai Mahjong published on July 1, 2019.[11] The first tankōbon volume was published on December 6, 2019.[12] As of July 1, 2020, two volumes have been released.[13]

Ten: Tenhōdōri No Kaidanji
No. Release date ISBN
1 August 21, 1989[5]978-4-88475-431-0
2 August 21, 1989[14]978-4-88475-432-7
3 May 31, 1990[15]978-4-88475-454-9
4 April 19, 1991[16]978-4-88475-505-8
5 April 24, 1992[17]978-4-88475-575-1
6 July 31, 1992[18]978-4-88475-596-6
7 April 22, 1993[19]978-4-88475-639-0
8 February 28, 1994[20]978-4-88475-699-4
9 February 27, 1995[21]978-4-88475-780-9
10 August 17, 1995[22]978-4-88475-833-2
11 July 27, 1996[23]978-4-81245-076-5
12 August 30, 1997[24]978-4-81245-145-8
13 August 27, 1998[25]978-4-81245-208-0
14 March 27, 1999[26]978-4-81245-287-5
15 May 27, 2000[27]978-4-81245-390-2
16 November 24, 2000[28]978-4-81245-456-5
17 June 27, 2001[29]978-4-81245-531-9
18 April 27, 2002[6]978-4-81245-648-4
HERO: Akagi no Ishi o Tsugu Otoko
No. Release date ISBN
1 June 11, 2010[30]978-4-8124-7288-0
2 February 26, 2011[31]978-4-8124-7516-4
3 July 27, 2011[32]978-4-8124-7643-7
4 June 27, 2012[33]978-4-8124-7916-2
5 January 26, 2013[34]978-4-8124-8093-9
6 December 10, 2013[35]978-4-8124-8471-5
7 July 28, 2014[36]978-4-8124-8745-7
8 July 31, 2015[37]978-4-8019-5319-2
9 May 16, 2016[38]978-4-8019-5520-2
10 December 15, 2016[39]978-4-8019-5705-3
11 November 1, 2017[40]978-4-8019-6095-4
12 June 27, 2018[41]978-4-8019-6309-2
13 October 15, 2018[42]978-4-8019-6408-2
14 May 1, 2019[43]978-4-8019-6602-4
15 December 6, 2019[44]978-4-8019-6823-3
16 July 1, 2020[45]978-4-8019-7028-1
Yamima no Mamiya
No. Release date ISBN
1 December 6, 2019[12]978-4-8019-6822-6
2 July 1, 2020[13]978-4-8019-7027-4

Drama

A Japanese television drama adaptation starring Gorō Kishitani as Ten ran for 12 episodes on TV Tokyo's new drama slot "Drama Paravi," airing every Thursday (Wednesday midnight) at 1:35-2:05 from October 4 to December 20, 2018.[46][47][48] Immediately after the first episode aired, all episodes were distributed in advance on the video distribution service Paravi, with an original episode taking place between episodes 11 and 12 releasing exclusively on the service on November 1. The East-West preliminary match does not take place in this series. Just like in the live action adaptations of the Kaiji series, the original manga author Fukumoto makes a special cameo appearance as one of the blacksuits.

A sequel adaptation of the last 3 volumes of the manga has been announced to premiere on TV Tokyo at the end of 2019.[49] The mini-series, known as "Ten: Akagi Shigeru Funeral Arc" (天 赤木しげる葬式編, Ten Akagi Shigeru Sōshiki-hen), was broadcast on December 29 as a 2 hour special, while the full unedited 5-episode version was pre-distributed on Paravi on November 11.

Episode list
#TitleWritten byDirected byOriginal airdate[50]
1"The Unluckiest Mahjong (最凶の麻雀, Saikyō no mājan)"Nonji NemotoTakashi NinomiyaOctober 4, 2018
2"Mahjong with Entire Property at Stake (全財産かけた麻雀, Zensaizan kaketa mājan)"October 11, 2018
3"Akagi, the Strongest Mahjong Player (最強の雀士アカギ, Saikyō no janshi Akagi)"October 18, 2018
4"Hell Wait on Four Closed Triplets (四暗刻地獄待ち, Sūankō jigoku-machi)"October 25, 2018
5"East-West Battle with 35 Billion at Stake (350億賭けた東西戦, 350-oku kaketa tōsai-sen)"Yōsuke MasaikeKeisuke ShibataNovember 1, 2018
6"Mahjong God Akagi's Play (雀神アカギの闘牌, Janshin Akagi no tōhai)"November 8, 2018
7"Mahjong God Akagi's Counterattack (雀神アカギの逆襲, Janshin Akagi no gyakushū)"November 15, 2018
8"Recovery with Four Closed Triplets (起死回生の四暗刻, Kishikaisei no sūankō)"Ryō MiyawakiNovember 22, 2018
9"Mahjong God Akagi is Defeated?! (雀神アカギ敗北!?, Janshin Akagi haiboku!?)"Nonji NemotoNovember 29, 2018
10"Comeback! Mahjong of Hell (逆転! 地獄の麻雀, Gyakuten! Jigoku no mājan)"December 6, 2017
11"Final Chapter! Two-Player Mahjong (最終章! 二人麻雀, Saishūshō! Futarimājan)"Nonji Nemoto
Masaki Miyamoto		Takashi NinomiyaDecember 13, 2018
11.5"Original Episode (オリジナルエピソード, Orijinaru episōdo)"Masaki MiyamotoNovember 1, 2018[51]
12"Ten: The Nice Guy on the Path of Tenhō (天 天和通りの快男児, Ten Tenhō-dōri no Kaidanji)"December 20, 2018

Video game

A video game for PlayStation 2 by D3 Publisher was released on December 11, 2003.[52]

Notes
  1. "Heavenly hand" – When the dealer wins on the first draw in mahjong.

References
  1. "『カイジ』『アカギ』『銀と金』の漫画家・福本伸行の原点 伝説の麻雀漫画「天 天和通りの快男児」初実写化！主演は岸谷五朗！" (in Japanese). TV Tokyo. June 18, 2018. Archived from the original on June 19, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  2. 天才雀士、赤木しげるの最期を見逃すな！「天　赤木しげる葬式編」。続編となる特別ドラマをParaviで独占配信決定！. PR Times (in Japanese). September 26, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  3. "Creator of Akagi and Kaiji to Visit Finland in June". Anime News Network. 8 April 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  4. "Tiles Against Humanity - The Mike Toole Show". Anime News Network. 6 October 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  5. 天（１） (in Japanese). Takeshobo. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  6. 天（１８） (in Japanese). Takeshobo. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  7. 天　新装版（１） (in Japanese). Takeshobo. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  8. 天　新装版（１３） (in Japanese). Takeshobo. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  9. 福本伸行協力の「天」スピンオフ、近代麻雀で連載開始. Natalie (in Japanese). October 1, 2009. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  10. Pineda, Rafael Antonio (May 2, 2019). "Akagi Gets Sequel Manga Set 20 Years Later". Anime News Network. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  11. Pineda, Rafael Antonio (July 12, 2019). "Akagi Sequel Manga Yami Ma no Mamiya Launches". Anime News Network. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
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