Abe ichizoku (1938) dir. Hisatora Kumagai

Adaptation of the 1913 short story “Abe ichizoku“ by Mori Ōgai (translated into English under the titles The Abe Family as well as The Abe Clan), which was inspired by the junshi loyalty suicides committed by Russo-Japanese War hero General Nogi Maresuke and his wife on the day of the funeral of Emperor Meiji. The film is based on a novella by the novelist and Japanese army medical officer Ogai Mori, whose writings also furnished the plots for Shiro Toyoda’s Gan (Wild Geese, 1953) and Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho the Bailiff (1954). The original story was a response to the dramatic suicide in 1912 of General Nogi, who committed hara-kiri after the death of the Emperor Meiji. At this time, Ogai produced a number of historical narratives examining themes of loyalty and self-sacrifice.