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Ten: Tenhō-dōri no Kaidanji
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Takashi Ten
天 天和通りの快男児
Genre	Gambling Mahjong
Manga
Written by	Nobuyuki Fukumoto
Published by	Takeshobo
Imprint	Kindai Mahjong Comics
Magazine	Kindai Mahjong Gold
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	1989 – 2002
Volumes	18
Manga
Hero: Akagi no Ishi o Tsugu Otoko
Written by	Jirō Maeda Nobuyuki Fukumoto (collaboration)
Published by	Takeshobo
Magazine	Kindai Mahjong
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	October 1, 2009 – July 1, 2021
Volumes	18
Television drama
Directed by	Takashi Ninomiya Keisuke Shibata Ryō Miyawaki
Produced by	Taku Matsumoto Yūta Kurachi Eiji Shibuya Yasuko Kobayashi
Written by	Nonji Nemoto Yōsuke Masaike Masaki Miyamoto
Music by	Kuniyuki Morohashi
Studio	TV Tokyo The icon
Original network	TV Tokyo
Original run	October 4, 2018 – December 29, 2019
Episodes	17 + 1
Manga
Rōkyō Bakutoden Soga
Written by	Bingo Morihashi
Illustrated by	Tomoki Miyoshi Yoshiaki Seto
Published by	Takeshobo
Magazine	Kindai Mahjong
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	June 1, 2023 – present
Volumes	1
Spin-offs
Akagi (1991–2018) Yami-ma no Mamiya (2019–present)

Ten: Tenhō-dōri no Kaidanji (天 天和通りの快男児, lit. Ten: The Nice Guy on the Path of Tenhō) is a Japanese mahjong-themed manga series written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. It was serialized in Takeshobo's Kindai Mahjong Gold from 1989 to 2002, with its chapters collected in eighteen tankōbon volumes. Considered a hit in Japan, it was followed by a prequel focusing on one of the supporting characters Akagi in 1991.

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, ran in Kindai Mahjong from October 2009 to July 2021. Another sequel, set 20 years after the events of Ten, titled Yami-ma no Mamiya, written and illustrated by Fukumoto, began in Kindai Mahjong in July 2019.

By August 2018, the manga had over 7 million copies in circulation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 does not feel his humanity and that he did not expect him to be such a pro.

Miscellaneous

Sawada (沢田)

Portrayed by: Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi

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 does not 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

The owner of a ramen shop. He teams up with Ten and fights against Hiroyuki and Sawada.

Murota (室田)

Portrayed by: Kazuyuki Aijima

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. Fukumoto launched the manga in 1989 during Japan's economic boom, when gambling manga became popular. The manga was serialized in Takeshobo's magazine Kindai Mahjong Gold from 1989 to 2002. Takeshobo compiled its chapters into eighteen tankōbon volumes, published from August 21, 1989 to April 27, 2002. Takeshobo re-released the series into thirteen volumes published from July 31, 2015 to July 27, 2016.

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, was serialized for 142 chapters in Kindai Mahjong from October 1, 2009, to July 1, 2021.

A prequel manga series focusing on one of the supporting characters Akagi was serialized from 1991 to 2018. A sequel created by Fukumoto, set twenty years after the events of Ten, titled Yami-ma no Mamiya, started in Kindai Mahjong in 2019.

A spin-off manga centered around Mitsui Soga, titled Rōkyō Bakutoden Soga (老境博徒伝SOGA), began serialization in Kindai Mahjong on June 1, 2023. The series is written by Bingo Morihashi and illustrated by Tomoki Miyoshi and Yoshiaki Seto. The first volume was released on April 1, 2024.

Volumes

Ten: Tenhōdōri No Kaidanji

Hero: Akagi no Ishi o Tsugu Otoko

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. 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 show's theme song is "Tentomushi" (天道虫) by The Yellow Monkey.

A sequel adaptation of the last three volumes of the manga has been announced to premiere on TV Tokyo at the end of 2019. 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. The Yellow Monkey's 1999 single "Barairo no Hibi" (バラ色の日々) was chosen to be its theme song.

Episodes

Video game

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

Reception

By August 2018, the Ten manga series had over 7 million copies in circulation.

See also

• Gambling in Japan

Notes

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

References

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Further reading

• Torai, Eisu (August 4, 2015). 『カイジ』『天』『アカギ』『黒沢』『銀と金』......どれから読めば良い？ 福本伸行作品ガイド. Manga Honz (in Japanese). Honz. Archived from the original on August 8, 2015.

External links

• Drama official website at TV Tokyo (in Japanese)
• Ten (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

• Manga series
• 1989 manga
• 2009 manga
• Japanese television dramas based on manga
• 2023 manga
• 2018 Japanese television series debuts
• Anime and manga about gambling
• Mahjong in anime and manga
• Nobuyuki Fukumoto
• Seinen manga
• Takeshobo manga
• TV Tokyo original programming