Last Samurai Standing in Meiji-mura

In 1878, Japan was becoming a modern nation freeing itself of its feudal past. But what should be done with the men who fought and died to make that modern nation a reality, the samurai? In Last Samurai Standing, hundreds of the most desperate and most bloodthirsty embark on a Battle Royale-style road trip from Kyoto to Edo where the promise of a lifetimes’ worth of riches awaits the survivor. And thus, Japan’s unemployed samurai population is brought to zero.

The protagonist is Saga Shujiro, a father and husband trying to save his family from the ravages of a cholera epidemic. Reduced to poverty when the samurai class was abolished, he can’t afford the medicine they need and so he takes up a mysterious offer to join the high-risk/high-reward game.Saga feels very much like a re-imagined Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin in all the ways that matters, but is he willing to kill again to survive?

The show offers up plenty of bloody and well-choreographed action set pieces along with a plot that has personal layers and back stories nested within it but thankfully without making it too convoluted. I enjoyed all six episodes and hope the next season is able to finish the story.

Like many productions before it, Last Samurai Standing takes advantage of Meiji-mura’s preserved historic buildings. Meiji-mura is a collection of over 60 buildings from the Meiji and Taisho-eras brought from around the country and preserved in a town-like setting. Each is preserved as if in use or as a museum to its former use. You can even ride a steam engine and Kyoto street cars that are all over a century old! It’s the Meijiest Place on Earth®!

Anyway, it’s been too long since I’ve had an excuse to write yet another article about Meiji-mura and I haven’t been back since 2020. Whenever I see something I just know what shot at Meiji-mura, I have to stop and check my many, many photos from my three visits because I know I saw that particular wall panel or light fixture. And if you notice somewhere I didn’t, please feel free to tell me in the comments!

Mie Prefectural Office (1879)
Home Ministry
Though far from Tokyo, this prefectural office (state capitol building) is the spitting image of the no-longer existing Home Ministry and has doubled for it in productions before. Inside is split between preserved offices, which were also used in the show, and museum spaces.

Barracks, Sixth Infantry Regiment (1873)
Home Ministry Hallway and Telegraph Room
The Home Ministry hallways and telegraph room where shot inside this barracks that was originally on the Nagoya Castle grounds and survived the Doolittle Raid and later Nagoya air raids. They likely used this narrow room for the office itself, or another one of the closed rooms in the same hallway.

Kitasato Institute (1915)
Police Department and Jail
The institute was used only for interiors, minus the cells.I still haven’t tracked down where the exterior shots were done.

Sapporo Telephone Exchange (1898)
Telegraph Office
I happened to shoot the empty room inside during my 2018 visit, which is likely the one used for the telegraph room. If not, it was still a room within this building and it appears the front desk was placed in the hallway by the entrance.