Kenji Misumi was a Japanese film director. He created film series such as Lone Wolf and Cub and the initial film in the long-running Zatoichi series, and also directed Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice, starring Shintaro Katsu. He died at age 54.

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. He first appeared in the 1948 essay Zatoichi Monogatari (座頭市物語), part of Shimozawa's Futokoro Techō series that was serialized in the magazine Shōsetsu to Yomimono.