Zatoichi

is a fictional character created by Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa. He is an itinerant blind masseur and swordsman of Japan's late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). He first appeared in the 1948 essay Zatoichi Monogatari, part of Shimozawa's Futokoro Techō series that was serialized in the magazine Shōsetsu to Yomimono.