MOMOYA TV-Ads218-Kunisada Chuji

Time: 30 sec.

Product Name: EDO-MURASAKI

Description of Product: EDO-MURASAKI is a savory preserve made of seaweed, called “Nori-no-tsukudani” in Japanese. It is made with soy sauce, sugar and mirin (rice wine.) It is preservable, and often eaten with Japanese rice.

Year:

Advertiser: Momoya Co., Ltd.

Advertising Agency: YOMIKO Advertising Inc.

Production Company: Television Corporation of Japan

Description of Title: Kunisada Chuji was Kyokaku, or a chivalrous man, of the Edo period. He is often described as a hero who saved peasants from Tempo no Daikikin, or the great Tempo famine, in Kodan, film and theater.

This TV ad had been broadcasted from 1958, and was selected for one of the “best 100 TV advertisements of the Showa period” in 1991 by the present Japan Ad. Contents Production Companies Association. Also, it is identical with the latter 30-second part of the 1960 Momoya’s TV advertisement “The Great Swordmen.” Against the background scenery of Mt. Akagi and a night sky with a crescent moon, Kunisada-Chuji draws the sword on his right hand, and then strikes a pose like Kabuki actor. He is a Kyokaku, an archetypal hero, of the late Edo period, and his character, as the one who relieved peasantsfrom the Tempo famine, has been frequently adapted for Kodan, film, novel, and theatrical play.