Toshiro Mifune

"Mifune" redirects here. For other uses, see Mifune (disambiguation).

The native form of this personal name is Mifune Toshiro. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Toshiro Mifune
Mifune in 1954
Born	(1920-04-01)April 1, 1920 Qingdao, Shandong, China
Died	December 24, 1997(1997-12-24) (aged 77) Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
Resting place	Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan
Occupations	Actor film producer film director
Years active	1947–1995
Spouse	Sachiko Yoshimine ​ ​ (m. 1950; died 1995)​
Partner	Mika Kitagawa
Children	3
Military career
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Army Air Service
Years of service	1940–1945
Rank	Sergeant
Unit	Aerial Photography
Battles/wars	World War II
Signature
Website	mifuneproductions.co.jp

Toshiro Mifune (三船みふね 敏郎としお, Mifune Toshirō, April 1, 1920 – December 24, 1997) was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. A leading figure in the Japanese film industry, he often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his physical presence and commanding screen presence.

Although he amassed more than 180 screen credits, Mifune is best known for his 16 collaborations with director Akira Kurosawa. These collaborations included Kurosawa's critically acclaimed jidaigeki films such as Rashomon (1950), for which Mifune won the San Marco Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), and Yojimbo (1961), for which Mifune won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and was recognised at the Blue Ribbon Awards as Best Actor. He also portrayed Miyamoto Musashi in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy (1954–1956), Lord Toranaga in the NBC television miniseries Shōgun, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in three different films.

In 1962, he established Mifune Productions, achieving success with large-scale works including The Sands of Kurobe (1968) and Samurai Banners (1969). He starred in his directorial debut film Goju Man-nin no Isan (1963). Following his performance in the 1965 film Red Beard, which won him the Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for a second time, Mifune turned to roles abroad. He starred in films such as Ánimas Trujano (1962), for which he won another Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor, Grand Prix (1966), which was his Hollywood debut, You Only Live Twice (1967), Hell in the Pacific (1968), Red Sun (1971), Paper Tiger (1975), Midway (1976), and Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979).

Mifune died of organ failure on December 24, 1997. In 1999, he was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame. He is the subject of the featured-length documentary, Mifune: The Last Samurai (2015), about his life and his films. In 2016, his name was inscribed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Mifune in 1939

Toshiro Mifune was born on April 1, 1920, in Seitō, Japanese-occupied Shandong (present-day Qingdao, China), the eldest son of Tokuzo and Sen Mifune. His father Tokuzo was a trade merchant and photographer who ran a photography business in Qingdao and Yingkou, and was originally the son of a medical doctor from Kawauchi, Akita Prefecture. His mother Sen was the daughter of a hatamoto, a high-ranking samurai official. Toshiro's parents, who were working as Methodist missionaries, were some of the Japanese citizens encouraged to live in Shandong by the Japanese government during its occupation before the Republic of China took over the city in 1922. Mifune grew up with his parents and two younger siblings in Dalian, Fengtian from the age of 4 to 19.

In his youth, Mifune worked at his father's photo studio. After spending the first 19 years of his life in China, as a Japanese citizen, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army Aviation division, where he served in the Aerial Photography unit during World War II.

Career

Early work

In 1947, a large number of Toho actors, after a prolonged strike, had left to form their own company, Shin Toho. Toho then organized a "new faces" contest to find new talent.

Nenji Oyama, a friend of Mifune's who worked for the Photography Department of Toho Productions, sent Mifune's resume to the New Faces audition as the Photography Department was full, telling Mifune he could later transfer to the Photography Department if he wished. He was accepted, along with 48 others (out of roughly 4,000 applicants), and allowed to take a screen test for Kajirō Yamamoto. Instructed to mime anger, he drew from his wartime experiences. Yamamoto took a liking to Mifune, recommending him to director Senkichi Taniguchi. This led to Mifune's first feature role, in Shin Baka Jidai.

Mifune first encountered director Akira Kurosawa when Toho Studios, the largest film production company in Japan, was conducting a massive talent search, during which hundreds of aspiring actors auditioned before a team of judges. Kurosawa was originally going to skip the event, but showed up when Hideko Takamine told him of one actor who seemed especially promising. Kurosawa later wrote that he entered the audition to see "a young man reeling around the room in a violent frenzy ... it was as frightening as watching a wounded beast trying to break loose. I was transfixed." When Mifune, exhausted, finished his scene, he sat down and gave the judges an ominous stare. He lost the competition but Kurosawa was impressed. "I am a person rarely impressed by actors," he later said. "But in the case of Mifune I was completely overwhelmed." Mifune immersed himself into the six-month training and diligently applied himself to studying acting, although at first he still hoped to be transferred to the camera department.

1950s–1990s

Mifune in Seven Samurai (1954)

His imposing bearing, acting range, facility with foreign languages and lengthy partnership with acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa made him the most famous Japanese actor of his time, and easily the best known to Western audiences. He often portrayed samurai or rōnin who were usually coarse and gruff (Kurosawa once explained that the only weakness he could find with Mifune and his acting ability was his "rough" voice), inverting the popular stereotype of the genteel, clean-cut samurai. In such films as Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, he played characters who were often comically lacking in manners, but replete with practical wisdom and experience, understated nobility, and, in the case of Yojimbo, unmatched fighting prowess. Sanjuro in particular contrasts this earthy warrior spirit with the useless, sheltered propriety of the court samurai. Kurosawa valued Mifune highly for his effortless portrayal of unvarnished emotion, once commenting that he could convey in only three feet of film an emotion for which the average Japanese actor would require ten feet. He starred in all three films of Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956), for which the first film in Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto was awarded an Honorary Academy Award. Mifune and Inagaki worked together on twenty films, which outnumbered his collaborations with Kurosawa, with all but two falling into the jidaigeki genre, most notably with Rickshaw Man (1958), which won the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion.

From left to right: Antonio Aguilar, Toshiro Mifune, and Flor Silvestre in Animas Trujano (1964)

He was also known for the effort he put into his performances. To prepare for Seven Samurai and Rashomon, Mifune reportedly studied footage of lions in the wild. For the Mexican film Ánimas Trujano, he studied tapes of Mexican actors speaking so that he could recite all of his lines in Spanish. Many Mexicans believed that Toshiro Mifune could have passed for a native of Oaxaca due to his critically acclaimed performance. When asked why he chose Mexico to do his next film, Mifune quoted, “Simply because, first of all, Mr. Ismael Rodríguez convinced me; secondly, because I was eager to work in beautiful Mexico, of great tradition; and thirdly, because the story and character of 'Animas Trujano' seemed very human to me”. The film was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Interestingly, Mifune gave a Japanese pistol as a gift to then-Mexican president Adolfo López Mateos when they met in Oaxaca.

Mifune has been credited as originating the "roving warrior" archetype, which he perfected during his collaboration with Kurosawa. His martial arts instructor was Yoshio Sugino of the Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū. Sugino created the fight choreography for films such as Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, and Kurosawa instructed his actors to emulate his movements and bearing.

Mifune in Hell in the Pacific (1968)

Clint Eastwood was among the first of many actors to adopt this wandering ronin with no name persona for foreign films, which he used to great effect in his Western roles, especially in Spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone where he played the Man with No Name, a character similar to Mifune's seemingly-nameless ronin in Yojimbo.

Mifune may also be credited with originating the yakuza archetype, with his performance as a mobster in Kurosawa's Drunken Angel (1948), the first yakuza film. Most of the sixteen Kurosawa–Mifune films are considered cinema classics. These include Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, High and Low, Throne of Blood (an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth), Yojimbo, and Sanjuro.

Mifune and Kurosawa finally parted ways after Red Beard. Several factors contributed to the rift that ended this career-spanning collaboration. Mifune had a passion for film in his own right and had long wanted to set up a production company, working towards going freelance. Kurosawa and Taniguchi advised against it out of concern they would not be able to cast Mifune as freely. Most of Mifune's contemporaries acted in several different movies in this period. Since Red Beard required Mifune to grow a natural beard — one he had to keep for the entirety of the film's two years of shooting — he was unable to act in any other films during the production. This put Mifune and his financially strapped production company deeply into debt, creating friction between him and Kurosawa. Although Red Beard played to packed houses in Japan and Europe, which helped Mifune recoup some of his losses, the ensuing years held varying outcomes for both Mifune and Kurosawa. After the film's release, the careers of each man took different arcs: Mifune continued to enjoy success with a range of samurai and war-themed films (Rebellion, Samurai Assassin, The Emperor and a General, among others). In contrast, Kurosawa's output of films dwindled and drew mixed responses. During this time, Kurosawa attempted suicide. In 1980, Mifune experienced popularity with mainstream American audiences through his role as Lord Toranaga in the television miniseries Shogun, which Kurosawa criticised for its historical inaccuracy. Mifune spoke respectfully of Kurosawa and loyally attended the premiere of Kagemusha.

Mifune turned down an opportunity from United Artists to play the Japanese spy chief Tiger Tanaka in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967). According to his daughter, he also turned down an offer from George Lucas to play either Darth Vader or Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars (1977).

Mifune himself was always professional, memorizing all of his lines and not carrying scripts on set. He was unusually humble for an international star, and was known for treating his co-stars and crew very generously, throwing lavish catered parties for them and paying for their families to go to onsen resorts. When American actor Scott Glenn was asked about his experience of filming The Challenge (1982) alongside Mifune, Glenn recalled disappointment that the original script (about "a surrogate father and son finding each other from completely different cultures") lost its "character-driven scenes" and was reduced to "a martial arts movie" but stated, "...I remember Mifune came to me, and he said, “Look, this is what's happening. I'm disappointed, and I know you are, but this is what it is. So you can either have your heart broken every day, or you can use this experience as an opportunity to be spending time in the most interesting time in Japan and let me be your tour guide.” So it wound up with me learning an awful lot of stuff from Toshirô."

In 1979, Mifune joined the ensemble cast of the Steven Spielberg war comedy 1941 as the commander of a lost Imperial Japanese Navy submarine searching for Hollywood shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. Mifune received wide acclaim in the West after playing Toranaga in the 1980 TV miniseries Shogun. However, the series' blunt portrayal of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the greatly abridged version shown in Japan meant that it was not as well received in his homeland.

The relationship between Kurosawa and Mifune remained ambivalent. Kurosawa criticized Mifune's acting in Interview magazine and also said that "All the films that I made with Mifune, without him, they would not exist". He also presented Mifune with the Kawashita award which he himself had won two years prior. They frequently encountered each other professionally and met again in 1993 at the funeral of their friend Ishirō Honda, but never collaborated again.

Personal life

Among Mifune's fellow performers, one of the 32 women chosen during the new faces contest was Sachiko Yoshimine. Eight years Mifune's junior, she came from a respected Tokyo family. They fell in love and Mifune soon proposed marriage.

Director Senkichi Taniguchi, with the help of Akira Kurosawa, convinced the Yoshimine family to allow the marriage. The wedding took place in February 1950 at the Aoyama Gakuin Methodist Church. Yoshimine was a Buddhist but since Mifune was a Christian, they were married in church as per Christian tradition.

In November of the same year, their first son, Shirō was born. In 1955, they had a second son, Takeshi. Mifune's daughter Mika was born to his mistress, actress Mika Kitagawa, in 1982.

The Mifune family tomb in Kawasaki, Kanagawa

In 1992, Mifune began suffering from a serious unknown health problem. It has been variously suggested that he destroyed his health with overwork, suffered a heart attack, or experienced a stroke. He retreated from public life and remained largely confined to his home, cared for by his estranged wife Sachiko. When she died from pancreatic cancer in 1995, Mifune's physical and mental state declined rapidly.

Death

On December 24, 1997, he died in Mitaka, Tokyo, of multiple organ failure at the age of 77.

Honors

Mifune won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor twice, in 1961 and 1965. He was awarded the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 1986 and the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1993. In 1973, he was a member of the jury at the 8th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1977, he was a member of the jury at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival.

On November 14, 2016, Mifune received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in the motion picture industry.

Personal quotations

Of Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune said, "I have never as an actor done anything that I am proud of other than with him".

Mifune had a kind of talent I had never encountered before in the Japanese film world. It was, above all, the speed with which he expressed himself that was astounding. The ordinary Japanese actor might need ten feet of film to get across an impression; Mifune needed only three. The speed of his movements was such that he said in a single action what took ordinary actors three separate movements to express. He put forth everything directly and boldly, and his sense of timing was the keenest I had ever seen in a Japanese actor. And yet with all his quickness, he also had surprisingly fine sensibilities.

— Akira Kurosawa, Something Like an Autobiography

"Since I came into the industry very inexperienced, I don't have any theory of acting. I just had to play my roles my way."

"Generally speaking, most East–West stories have been a series of cliches. I, for one, have no desire to retell Madame Butterfly."

"An actor is not a puppet with strings pulled by the director. He is a human being with seeds of all emotions, desires, and needs within himself. I attempt to find the very center of this humanity and explore and experiment."

Legacy

Of Toshiro Mifune, in his 1991 book Cult Movie Stars, Danny Peary wrote,

Vastly talented, charismatic, and imposing (because of his strong voice and physique), the star of most of Akira Kurosawa's classics became the first Japanese actor since Sessue Hayakawa to have international fame. But where Hayakawa became a sex symbol because he was romantic, exotic, and suavely charming (even when playing lecherous villains), Mifune's sex appeal – and appeal to male viewers – was due to his sheer unrefined and uninhibited masculinity. He was attractive even when he was unshaven and unwashed, drunk, wide-eyed, and openly scratching himself all over his sweaty body, as if he were a flea-infested dog. He did indeed have animal magnetism – in fact, he based his wild, growling, scratching, superhyper Samurai recruit in The Seven Samurai on a lion. It shouldn't be forgotten that Mifune was terrific in Kurosawa's contemporary social dramas, as detectives or doctors, wearing suits and ties, but he will always be remembered for his violent and fearless, funny, morally ambivalent samurai heroes for Kurosawa, as well as in Hiroshi Inagaki's classic epic, The Samurai Trilogy.

Peary also wrote,

Amazingly physical, [Mifune] was a supreme action hero whose bloody, ritualistic, and, ironically, sometimes comical sword-fight sequences in Yojimbo and Sanjuro are classics, as well-choreographed as the greatest movie dances. His nameless sword-for-hire anticipated Clint Eastwood’s ‘Man With No Name’ gunfighter. With his intelligence, eyes seemingly in back of his head, and experience evident in every thrust or slice, he has no trouble – and no pity – dispatching twenty opponents at a time (Bruce Lee must have been watching!). It is a testament to his skills as an actor that watching the incredible swordplay does not thrill us any more than watching his face during the battle or just the way he moves, without a trace of panic, across the screen – for no one walks or races with more authority, arrogance, or grace than Mifune's barefoot warriors. For a 20-year period, there was no greater actor – dynamic or action – than Toshiro Mifune. Just look at his credits.

In an article published in 2020 by The Criterion Collection in commemoration of Mifune's centenary of birth, Moeko Fujii wrote,

For most of the past century, when people thought of a Japanese man, they saw Toshiro Mifune. A samurai, in the world's eyes, has Mifune's fast wrists, his scruff, his sidelong squint... He may have played warriors, but they weren't typical heroes: they threw tantrums and fits, accidentally slipped off mangy horses, yawned, scratched, chortled, and lazed. But when he extended his right arm, quick and low with a blade, he somehow summoned the tone of epics.

There's a tendency to make Mifune sound mythical. The leading man of Kurosawa-gumi, the Emperor's coterie, he would cement his superstar status in over 150 films in his lifetime, acting for other famed directors — Hiroshi Inagaki, Kajiro Yamamoto, Kihachi Okamoto — in roles ranging from a caped lover to a Mexican bandit.

Mifune's life on-screen centers solely around men. Women, when they do appear, feel arbitrary, mythical, temporary: it's clear that no one is really invested in the thrums of heterosexual desire... Toshiro Mifune cemented his reputation as an icon of masculinity right alongside Hollywood narratives of neutered Asian manhood. In 1961, Mifune provoked worldwide longing by swaggering around in Yojimbo, the same year that Mickey Rooney played the bucktoothed Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Looks-wise, he's the opposite of his predecessor, the silent film star Sessue Hayakawa — often christened the “first Hollywood sex symbol” — with his long, slim fingers and Yves Saint Laurent polish. But Mifune represents a development beyond Hayakawa's Japanese-man-on-screen, who, despite his huge white female fanbase, was always limited to roles of the “Oriental” villain, the menace, the impossible romantic lead: in 1957, Joe Franklin would tell Hayakawa in his talk show, “There were two things we were sure of in the silent movie era; the Indians never got the best of it, and Sessue Hayakawa never got the girl.”

Mifune never wants the girl in the first place. So the men around him can't help but watch him a little open-mouthed, as he walks his slice of world, amused by and nonchalant about the stupor he leaves in his wake. “Who is he?,” someone asks, and no one ever has a good answer. You can't help but want to walk alongside him, to figure it out.

Filmography

Mifune appeared in roughly 170 feature films. In 2015, Steven Okazaki released Mifune: The Last Samurai, a documentary chronicling Mifune's life and career. Due to variations in translation from the Japanese and other factors, there are multiple titles to many of Mifune's films (see IMDb link). The titles shown here are the most common ones used in the United States, with the original Japanese title listed below it in parentheses. Mifune's filmography mainly consists of Japanese productions, unless noted otherwise (see Notes column).

Films

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1947	Snow Trail (銀嶺ぎんれいの果はて)	Ejima (江島えじま)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	These Foolish Times (新しん馬鹿ばか時代じだい 前まえ篇へん)	Genzaburō Ōno (大野おおの源三郎げんざぶろう)	Kajirō Yamamoto (山本やまもと 嘉次郎かじろう)
	These Foolish Times Part 2 (新しん馬鹿ばか時代じだい 後ご篇へん)	Genzaburō Ōno (大野おおの源三郎げんざぶろう)	Kajirō Yamamoto (山本やまもと 嘉次郎かじろう)
1948	Drunken Angel (醉よいどれ天使てんし)	Matsunaga (松永まつなが)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
1949	The Quiet Duel (静しずかなる決闘けっとう)	Kyōji Fujisaki (藤崎ふじさき恭二きょうじ)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Jakoman and Tetsu (ジャコ萬まんと鉄てつ)	Tetsu (鐵てつ)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	Stray Dog (野良犬のらいぬ)	Detective Murakami (村上むらかみ刑事けいじ)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
1950	Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka (石いし中ちゅう先生せんせい行状ぎょうじょう記き)	Teisaku Nagasawa (長沢ながさわ貞作ていさく)	Mikio Naruse (成瀬なるせ 巳喜男みきお)
	Scandal (醜聞しゅうぶん)	Ichirō Aoe (青江あおえ一郎いちろう)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Engagement Ring (婚約こんやく指ゆび環たまき)	Takeshi Ema (江間えま猛たけし)	Keisuke Kinoshita (木下きのした 惠めぐみ介かい)
	Rashomon (羅生門らしょうもん)	Tajōmaru (多た襄じょう丸まる)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Escape from Prison (脱獄だつごく)	Shinkichi (新吉しんきち)	Kajirō Yamamoto (山本やまもと 嘉次郎かじろう)
1951	Beyond Love and Hate (愛あいと憎にくしみの彼方かなたへ)	Gorō Sakata (坂田さかた五郎ごろう)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	Elegy (悲歌ひか)	Prosecutor Daisuke Toki (土岐とき大輔だいすけ検事けんじ)	Kajirō Yamamoto (山本やまもと 嘉次郎かじろう)
	The Idiot (白痴はくち)	Denkichi Akama (赤間あかま伝吉でんきち)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Pirates (海賊かいぞく船せん)	Tora (虎とら)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	Meeting of the Ghost Après-Guerre (戦後せんご派はお化ばけ大会たいかい)	Kenji Kawakami (川上かわかみ謙二けんじ)	Kiyoshi Saeki (佐伯さえき清きよし)	Special appearance
	Conclusion of Kojiro Sasaki: Duel at Ganryu Island (完結かんけつ 佐々木ささき小次郎こじろう 巌流島がんりゅうじま決闘けっとう)	Musashi Miyamoto (宮本みやもと武蔵むさし)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	The Life of a Horsetrader (馬喰ばくろう一いち代だい)	Yonetarō Katayama (片山かたやま米よね太郎たろう)	Keigo Kimura
	Who Knows a Woman's Heart (女おんなごころ誰だれが知しる)	Mizuno (水野みずの)	Kajirō Yamamoto (山本やまもと 嘉次郎かじろう)
1952	Vendetta for a Samurai (荒木あらき又右衛門またえもん 決闘けっとう鍵屋かぎやの辻つじ)	Mataemon Araki (荒木あらき又右衛門またえもん)	Kazuo Mori (森もり 一生かずお)
	Foghorn (霧笛むてき)	Chiyokichi (千代吉ちよきち)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	The Life of Oharu (西鶴さいかく一いち代だい女おんな)	Katsunosuke (勝之かつゆき介かい)	Kenji Mizoguchi (溝口みぞぐち 健二けんじ)
	Golden Girl (金かねの卵たまご)		Yasuki Chiba (千葉ちば泰樹やすき)	Supporting role
	Sword for Hire (戦国せんごく無頼ぶらい)	Hayatenosuke Sasa (佐々ささ疾風しっぷう之の介かい)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	Tokyo Sweetheart (東京とうきょうの恋人こいびと)	Kurokawa (黒川くろかわ)	Yasuki Chiba (千葉ちば泰樹やすき)
	Swift Current (激流げきりゅう)	Shunsuke Kosugi (小杉こすぎ俊介しゅんすけ)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	The Man Who Came to Port (港みなとへ来きた男おとこ)	Gorō Niinuma (新沼にいぬま五郎ごろう)	Ishirō Honda (本多ほんだ 猪いの四郎しろう)
1953	My Wonderful Yellow Car (吹ふけよ春風しゅんぷう)	Matsumura (松村まつむら)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	The Last Embrace (抱擁ほうよう)	Shinkichi/Hayakawa (伸しん吉きち / 早川はやかわ)	Masahiro Makino (マキノ 雅弘まさひろ)
	Sunflower Girl (ひまわり娘むすめ)	Ippei Hitachi (日立ひたち一平いっぺい)	Yasuki Chiba (千葉ちば泰樹やすき)	Originally released overseas as Love in a Teacup
	Eagle of the Pacific (太平洋たいへいようの鷲わし)	1st Lieutenant Jōichi Tomonaga (友永ともなが丈たけ市し大尉たいい)	Ishirō Honda (本多ほんだ 猪いの四郎しろう)
1954	Seven Samurai (七人しちにんの侍さむらい)	Kikuchiyo (菊きく千せん代だい)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	The Sound of Waves (潮騒しおさい)	Skipper of the Utashima-maru (歌島うたじま丸まるの船長せんちょう)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	Samurai I : Musashi Miyamoto (宮本みやもと武蔵むさし)	Musashi Miyamoto (Takezō Shinmen) (宮本みやもと武蔵むさし (新免しんめん武蔵むさし))	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	The Black Fury (密輸みつゆ船せん)	Eiichi Tsuda (津田つだ栄一えいいち)	Toshio Sugie (杉すぎ江こう敏男としお)
1955	The Merciless Boss: A Man Among Men (顔役かおやく無用むよう 男性だんせいＮｏ．なんばー１)	"Buick" Maki (ビュイックの牧まき)	Kajirō Yamamoto (山本やまもと 嘉次郎かじろう)
	All Is Well (天下てんか泰平たいへい)	Daikichi Risshun (立春りっしゅん大吉だいきち)	Toshio Sugie (杉すぎ江こう敏男としお)
	All Is Well Part 2 (続ぞく天下てんか泰平たいへい)	Daikichi Risshun (立春りっしゅん大吉だいきち)	Toshio Sugie (杉すぎ江こう敏男としお)
	No Time for Tears (男おとこありて)	Mitsuo Yano (矢野やの光男みつお)	Seiji Maruyama (丸山まるやま誠治せいじ)
	Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (続ぞく宮本みやもと武蔵むさし 一乗寺いちじょうじの決けつ斗と)	Musashi Miyamoto (宮本みやもと武蔵むさし)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	I Live in Fear (生いきものの記録きろく)	Kiichi Nakajima (中島なかじま喜一きいち)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
1956	Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (宮本みやもと武蔵むさし 完結かんけつ篇へん 決闘けっとう巌流島がんりゅうじま)	Musashi Miyamoto (宮本みやもと武蔵むさし)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	Rainy Night Duel (黒くろ帯たい三国志さんごくし)	Masahiko Koseki (小関おぜき昌彦まさひこ)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	The Underworld (暗黒あんこく街がい)	Chief Inspector Kumada (熊田くまだ捜査そうさ主任しゅにん)	Kajirō Yamamoto (山本やまもと 嘉次郎かじろう)
	Settlement of Love (愛情あいじょうの決算けっさん)	Shuntarō Ōhira (大平おおひら俊太郎しゅんたろう)	Shin Saburi (佐分利さぶり 信しん)
	A Wife's Heart (妻つまの心しん)	Kenkichi Takemura (竹村たけむら健吉けんきち)	Mikio Naruse (成瀬なるせ 巳喜男みきお)
	Scoundrel (ならず者もの)	Kanji (寛ひろし次じ)	Nobuo Aoyagi (青柳あおやぎ信雄のぶお)
	Rebels on the High Seas (囚人しゅうじん船せん)	Tokuzō Matsuo (松尾まつお徳造とくぞう)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
1957	Throne of Blood (蜘蛛くも巣す城じょう)	Taketoki Washizu (鷲津わしづ武たけし時じ)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	A Man in the Storm (嵐あらしの中なかの男おとこ)	Saburō Watari (渡わたり三郎さぶろう)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	Be Happy, These Two Lovers (この二人ふたりに幸こうあれ)	Toshio Maruyama (丸山まるやま俊夫としお)	Ishirō Honda (本多ほんだ 猪いの四郎しろう)
	Yagyu Secret Scrolls Part 1 (柳生やぎゅう武芸ぶげい帳ちょう)	Tasaburō Kasumi (霞かすみの多三郎たさぶろう)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	A Dangerous Hero (危険きけんな英雄えいゆう)	Athlete Kawada (川田かわた選手せんしゅ)	Hideo Suzuki
	The Lower Depths (どん底ぞこ)	Sutekichi (the thief) (捨吉すてきち (泥棒どろぼう))	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Downtown (下町したまち)	Yoshio Tsuruishi (鶴づる石せき芳雄よしお)	Yasuki Chiba (千葉ちば泰樹やすき)
1958	Yagyu Secret Scrolls Part 2 (柳生やぎゅう武芸ぶげい帳ちょう 双龍そうりゅう秘ひ剣けん)	Tasaburō Ōtsuki (大月おおつき多三郎たさぶろう)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	Holiday in Tokyo (東京とうきょうの休日きゅうじつ)	Tenkai's nephew Jirō (天海あまみの甥おい·二に郎ろう)	Kajirō Yamamoto (山本やまもと 嘉次郎かじろう)
	Muhomatsu, The Rikshaw Man (無法むほう松まつの一生いっしょう)	Matsugorō Tomishima (富島としま松五郎まつごろう)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	Yaji and Kita on the Road (弥次喜多やじきた道中どうちゅう記き)	Toshinoshin Taya (田谷たや敏之としゆき進すすむ)	Yasuki Chiba (千葉ちば泰樹やすき)
	All About Marriage (結婚けっこんのすべて)	Acting teacher (演出えんしゅつ家か)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)	Cameo
	Theater of Life (人生じんせい劇場げきじょう 青春せいしゅん篇へん)	Hishakaku (飛車ひしゃ角かく)	Toshio Sugie (杉すぎ江こう敏男としお)
	The Hidden Fortress (隠かくし砦とりでの三さん悪人あくにん)	General Rokurota Makabe (真壁まかべ六郎ろくろう太ふとし)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
1959	Boss of the Underworld (暗黒あんこく街がいの顔役かおやく)	Daisuke Kashimura (樫村かしむら大助だいすけ)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)
	Samurai Saga (或あるる剣豪けんごうの生涯しょうがい)	Heihachirō Komaki (駒木こまき兵へい八郎はちろう)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	The Saga of the Vagabonds (戦国せんごく群盗ぐんとう伝でん)	Rokurō Kai (甲斐かい六郎ろくろう)	Toshio Sugie (杉すぎ江こう敏男としお)
	Desperado Outpost (独立どくりつ愚連隊ぐれんたい)	Battalion Commander Kodama (児玉こだま大尉たいい)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)
	The Three Treasures (日本にっぽん誕生たんじょう)	Prince Takeru Yamato/Prince Susano'o (日本にっぽん武たけ尊たかし/須佐すさ之の男おとこ命いのち)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
1960	The Last Gunfight (暗黒あんこく街がいの対決たいけつ)	Detective Saburō Fujioka (藤ふじ丘おか三郎さぶろう刑事けいじ)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)
	The Gambling Samurai (国定くにさだ忠治ただはる)	Chūji Kunisada (国定くにさだ忠治ただはる)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	Storm Over the Pacific (ハワイ·ミッドウェイ大海たいかい空戦くうせん 太平洋たいへいようの嵐あらし)	Tamon Yamaguchi (山口やまぐち多聞たもん)	Shūe Matsubayashi (松林しょうりん 宗そう恵めぐみ)
	Man Against Man (男おとこ対たい男おとこ)	Kaji (梶かじ)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
	The Bad Sleep Well (悪わるい奴やつほどよく眠ねむる)	Kōichi Nishi (西幸にしさいわい一いち)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Salaryman Chushingura Part 1 (サラリーマン忠臣蔵ちゅうしんぐら)	Kazuo Momoi (桃井ももい和雄かずお)	Toshio Sugie (杉すぎ江こう敏男としお)
1961	The Story of Osaka Castle (大だい坂城さかき物語ものがたり)	Mohei (茂兵衛もへい)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	Salaryman Chushingura Part 2 (続ぞくサラリーマン忠臣蔵ちゅうしんぐら)	Kazuo Momoi (桃井ももい和雄かずお)	Toshio Sugie (杉すぎ江こう敏男としお)
	Yojimbo (用心棒ようじんぼう)	Sanjūrō Kuwabata (桑畑くわはた三十郎さんじゅうろう)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	The Youth and his Amulet (ゲンと不動明王ふどうみょうおう)	Fudō Myō-ō (不動明王ふどうみょうおう)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	Ánimas Trujano	Ánimas Trujano	Ismael Rodríguez	Mexican production
1962	Sanjuro (椿つばき三十郎さんじゅうろう)	Sanjūrō Tsubaki (椿つばき三十郎さんじゅうろう)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Tatsu (どぶろくの辰たつ)	Tatsu (辰たつ)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	Three Gentlemen Return from Hong Kong (続ぞく·社長しゃちょう洋行ようこう記き)	Cho Chishō (Zhang Zhizhang) (張ちょう知章ともあき (カメオ出演しゅつえん))	Toshio Sugie (杉すぎ江こう敏男としお)	Cameo
	Chushingura: Story of Flower, Story of Snow (忠臣蔵ちゅうしんぐら 花はなの巻まき·雪せつの巻まき)	Genba Tawaraboshi (俵たわら星ぼし玄蕃げんば)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
1963	Attack Squadron! (太平洋たいへいようの翼つばさ)	Lt. Colonel Senda (千田せんだ中佐ちゅうさ)	Shūe Matsubayashi (松林しょうりん 宗そう恵めぐみ)
	High and Low (天国てんごくと地獄じごく)	Kingo Gondō (権藤ごんどう金吾きんご)	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Legacy of the 500,000 (五ご十じゅう万まん人にんの遺産いさん)	Takeichi Matsuo (松尾まつお武市たけいち 兼けん 製作せいさく 兼けん 監督かんとく)	Toshiro Mifune (三船みふね 敏郎としお)	Also director and producer
	The Lost World of Sinbad (大だい盗賊とうぞく)	Sukezaemon Naya (Sukezaemon Luzon) (菜さい屋や助左衛門すけざえもん (呂りょ宋そう助左衛門すけざえもん))	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)
1964	Whirlwind (士魂しこん魔道まどう 大だい龍巻たつまき)	Morishige Akashi (明石あかし守重もりしげ)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
1965	Samurai Assassin (侍さむらい)	Tsuruchiyo Niiro (新しん納おさめ鶴つる千代ちよ)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)
	Red Beard (赤あかひげ)	Dr. Kyojō Niide (Red Beard) (新しん出で去ざ定てい医師いし (赤あかひげ))	Akira Kurosawa (黒澤くろさわ明あきら)
	Sanshiro Sugata (姿すがた三四郎さんしろう)	Shōgorō Yano (矢野やの正ただし五郎ごろう)	Seiichirô Uchikawa (内川うちかわ清一郎せいいちろう)
	The Retreat from Kiska (太平洋たいへいよう奇跡きせきの作戦さくせん キスカ)	Major General Omura (大村おおむら少将しょうしょう)	Seiji Maruyama (丸山まるやま誠治せいじ)
	Fort Graveyard (血ちと砂すな)	Sergeant Kosugi (小杉こすぎ曹長そうちょう)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)	also producer
1966	Rise Against the Sword (暴あばれ豪ごう右みぎ衛門えもん)	Shinobu no Gōemon (信夫しのぶの豪ごう右みぎ衛門えもん)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)
	The Sword of Doom (大菩薩峠だいぼさつとうげ)	Toranosuke Shimada (島田しまだ虎之助とらのすけ)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)
	The Adventure of Kigan Castle (奇き巌城いわきの冒険ぼうけん)	Ōsumi (大角おおすみ)	Senkichi Taniguchi (谷口たにぐち 千せん吉きち)	also producer
	The Mad Atlantic (怒涛どとう一いち万まん浬かいり)	Heihachirō Murakami (村上むらかみ平八郎へいはちろう)	Jun Fukuda (福田ふくだ 純じゅん)	also executive producer
	Grand Prix	Izō Yamura (矢や村むら以蔵)	John Frankenheimer	U.S. production
1967	Samurai Rebellion (上意じょうい討うち 拝領はいりょう妻つま始末しまつ)	Isaburō Sasahara (笹原ささはら伊三郎いさぶろう)	Masaki Kobayashi (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)	also producer
	Japan's Longest Day (日本にっぽんのいちばん長ながい日ひ)	Korechika Anami (阿南あなみ惟幾これちか)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)
1968	The Sands of Kurobe (黒部くろべの太陽たいよう)	Satoshi Kitagawa (北川きたがわ覚さとし)	Kei Kumai (熊井くまい 啓あきら)
	Admiral Yamamoto (連合れんごう艦隊かんたい司令しれい長官ちょうかん 山本やまもと五十六いそろく)	Isoroku Yamamoto (山本やまもと五十六いそろく)	Seiji Maruyama (丸山まるやま誠治せいじ)
	The Day the Sun Rose (祇園祭ぎおんまつり)	Kumaza (熊くま左ひだり)	Daisuke Itō (伊藤いとう 大輔だいすけ) and Tetsuya Yamanouchi (山内やまうち鉄也てつや)
	Hell in the Pacific	Captain Tsuruhiko Kuroda (黒田くろだ鶴づる彦大尉たいい)	John Boorman	U.S. production
1969	Samurai Banners (風林火山ふうりんかざん)	Kansuke Yamamoto (山本やまもと勘助かんすけ)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)	also producer
	Safari 5000 (栄光えいこうへの5000キロ)	Yūichirō Takase (高瀬たかせ雄一郎ゆういちろう)	Koreyoshi Kurahara (蔵原くらはら惟おもんみ繕つくろえ)
	The Battle of the Japan Sea (日本海にほんかい大だい海戦かいせん)	Heihachirō Tōgō (東郷とうごう平八郎へいはちろう)	Seiji Maruyama (丸山まるやま誠治せいじ)
	Red Lion (赤毛あかげ)	Akage no Gonzō (赤毛あかげの権けん三さん 兼けん 製作せいさく)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)	also Producer
	Shinsengumi (新選しんせん組ぐみ)	Isami Kondō (近藤こんどう勇いさむ 兼けん 製作せいさく)	Tadashi Sawashima (沢さわ島しま 忠ただし)	also Producer
1970	Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (座頭市ざとういちと用心棒ようじんぼう)	Daisaku Sasa (佐々ささ大作だいさく)	Kihachi Okamoto (岡本おかもと 喜八きはち)
	Bakumatsu (幕末ばくまつ)	Shōjirō Gotō (後藤ごとう象二しょうじ郎ろう)	Daisuke Itō (伊藤いとう 大輔だいすけ)
	Incident at Blood Pass (待まち伏ぶせ)	Tōzaburō Shinogi (鎬刀三さん郎ろう 兼けん 製作せいさく)	Hiroshi Inagaki (稲垣いながき 浩ひろし)	also Producer
	The Walking Major (ある兵士へいしの賭かけ)	Tadao Kinugasa (衣笠きぬがさ忠夫ただお)	Keith Larsen
	The Militarists (激動げきどうの昭和しょうわ史し 軍閥ぐんばつ)	Isoroku Yamamoto (山本やまもと五十六いそろく)	Hiromichi Horikawa (堀川ほりかわ 弘通ひろみち)
1971	Red Sun	Jūbei Kuroda (黒田くろだ重しげる兵衛ひょうえ)	Terence Young	French. Italian, and Spanish co-production
	Morning for Two 二人ふたりだけの朝あさ	none	Takeshi Matsumori	producer only
1975	Paper Tiger	Ambassador Kagoyama (カゴヤマ大使たいし)	Ken Annakin	U.K. production
	The New Spartans	WW2 vet	Jack Starrett	U.K., West German co-production; Incomplete
1976	Midway	Isoroku Yamamoto (山本やまもと五十六いそろく)	Jack Smight	U.S. production
1977	Proof of the Man (人間にんげんの証明しょうめい)	Yōhei Kōri (郡こおり陽平ようへい)	Junya Satō (佐藤さとう 純じゅん彌わたる)	Special appearance
	Japanese Godfather: Ambition (日本にっぽんの首領しゅりょう 野望やぼう篇へん)	Kōsuke Ōishi (大石おおいし剛つよし介かい)	Sadao Nakajima (中島なかじま貞夫さだお)
1978	Shogun's Samurai (柳生やぎゅう一族いちぞくの陰謀いんぼう)	Yoshinao Tokugawa (徳川とくがわ義直よしなお)	Kinji Fukasaku (深作ふかさく 欣二きんじ)
	Shag (犬いぬ笛ふえ)	Captain Takeo Murata (村田むらた武雄たけお船長せんちょう)	Sadao Nakajima (中島なかじま貞夫さだお)	also executive producer
	Ogin-sama (お吟ぎんさま)	Hideyoshi Toyotomi (豊臣とよとみ秀吉ひでよし)	Kei Kumai (熊井くまい 啓あきら)
	The Fall of Ako Castle (赤穂あこう城じょう断絶だんぜつ)	Chikara Tsuchiya (土屋つちや主税ちから)	Kinji Fukasaku (深作ふかさく 欣二きんじ)
	Japanese Godfather: Conclusion (日本にっぽんの首領しゅりょう 完結かんけつ篇へん)	Kōsuke Ōishi (大石おおいし剛つよし介かい)	Sadao Nakajima (中島なかじま貞夫さだお)
	Lord Incognito (水戸黄門みとこうもん)	Sakuzaemon Okumura (奥村おくむら作つくる左衛門さえもん)	Tetsuya Yamanouchi (山内やまうち鉄也てつや)
1979	Winter Kills	Keith (secretary) (キース (秘書ひしょ))	William Richert	U.S. production
	The Adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi (金田一きんだいち耕こう助すけの冒険ぼうけん)	Kōsuke Kindaichi XI (11代目だいめ金田一きんだいち耕こう助すけ)	Nobuhiko Obayashi (大林おおばやし 宣彦のぶひこ)
	Onmitsu Doshin: The Edo Secret Police (隠密おんみつ同心どうしん·大江戸おおえど捜査そうさ網もう)	Sadanobu Matsudaira (松平まつだいら定信さだのぶ)	Akinori Matsuo (松尾まつお昭典あきのり)	also producer
	1941	Commander Akiro Mitamura (アキロー·ミタムラ中佐ちゅうさ)	Steven Spielberg	U.S. production
1980	The Battle of Port Arthur (二に百ひゃく三さん高地こうち)	Emperor Meiji (明治天皇めいじてんのう)	Toshio Masuda (舛田ますだ 利雄としお)
	Shogun (将軍しょうぐん SHOGUN)	Toranaga Yoshii (吉井よしい虎とら長ちょう)	Jerry London	U.S., Japanese co-production; Film condensation of the miniseries
1981	Inchon!	Saitō-san (斉藤さいとうさん)	Terence Young	U.S. production
	The Bushido Blade	Commander Fukusai Hayashi (江戸えど幕府ばくふの特命とくめい全権ぜんけん大使たいし·林りん復ふく斎とき)	Tsugunobu Kotani (小谷おたに承うけたまわ靖やすし)	U.S., U.K., Japanese co-production
1982	The Challenge	Toru Yoshida (吉田よしだ徹とおる)	John Frankenheimer	U.S. production
	Conquest (制覇せいは)	Masao Tadokoro (田所たどころ政雄まさお)	Sadao Nakajima (中島なかじま貞夫さだお)
1983	Battle Anthem (日本海にほんかい大だい海戦かいせん 海うみゆかば)	Heihachirō Tōgō (東郷とうごう平八郎へいはちろう)	Toshio Masuda (舛田ますだ 利雄としお)
	Theater of Life (人生じんせい劇場げきじょう)	Hyōtarō Aonari (青あお成しげる瓢ひさご太郎たろう)	Junya Satō (佐藤さとう 純じゅん彌わたる) Sadao Nakajima (中島なかじま貞夫さだお) and Kinji Fukasaku (深作ふかさく 欣二きんじ)	Special appearance
1984	The Miracle of Joe Petrel (海燕うみつばめジョーの奇跡きせき)	Fisherman (漁師りょうし)	Toshiya Fujita (藤田ふじた 敏さとし八はち)
1985	Legend of the Holy Woman (聖女せいじょ伝説でんせつ)	Kōzō Kanzaki (神崎かんざき弘ひろし造づくり)	Tōru Murakawa (村川むらかわ透とおる)	Special appearance
1986	Song of the Genkai Sea (玄海げんかいつれづれ節ふし)	Kyūbei Matsufuji (松藤まつふじ九きゅう兵衛ひょうえ)	Masanobu Deme (出目でめ昌伸まさのぶ)
1987	Shatterer	Murai (村井むらい)	Tonino Valerii	Italian, Japanese co-production
	Tora-san Goes North (男おとこはつらいよ 知床しれとこ慕情ぼじょう)	Junkichi Ueno (上野うえの順吉じゅんきち)	Yoji Yamada (山田やまだ 洋次ようじ)
	Princess from the Moon (竹たけ取と物語ものがたり)	Taketori-no-Miyatsuko (竹たけ取との造みやつこ)	Kon Ichikawa (市川いちかわ 崑こん)
1989	Death of a Tea Master (千利休せんのりきゅう 本もと覺さとし坊ぼう遺文いぶん)	Sen no Rikyū (千利休せんのりきゅう)	Kei Kumai (熊井くまい 啓あきら)
	The Demon Comes in Spring (春はる来くる鬼おに)	Kukkune no jî (くっくねの爺じい)	Akira Kobayashi (小林こばやし 旭あさひ)
	CF Girl (CFガール)	Shūichirō Hase (長谷ながたに周一郎しゅういちろう)	Izo Hashimoto (橋本はしもと 以蔵)
1991	Strawberry Road (ストロベリーロード)	Taoka (田岡たおか)	Koreyoshi Kurahara (蔵原くらはら惟おもんみ繕つくろえ)
	Journey of Honor (兜かぶと KABUTO)	Ieyasu Tokugawa (徳川とくがわ家康いえやす)	Gordon Hessler	U.S., U.K., Japanese co-production
1992	Shadow of the Wolf (AGAGUK)	Kroomak	Jacques Dorfmann and Pierre Magny	Canadian, French co-production
1994	Picture Bride	Kayo Hatta	The Benshi (弁士べんし)	U.S. production
1995	Deep River (深ふかい河かわ)	Tsukada (塚田つかだ)	Kei Kumai (熊井くまい 啓あきら)	Final film role

The 1999 Danish film Mifune is named after the actor.

Television

All programs originally aired in Japan except for Shōgun which aired in the U.S. on NBC in September 1980 before being subsequently broadcast in Japan on TV Asahi from March 30 to April 6, 1981.

Date(s)	Title	Role	Notes
1967.05.11	He of the Sun (太陽たいようのあいつ)	Himself	1 episode
1968–1969	Five Freelance Samurai (五ご人にんの野武士のぶし)	Jirō Yoshikage Funayama (五ご人にんの野武士のぶし)	6 episodes [Ep. 1,2,14,15,17,26]
1971	Daichūshingura (大だい忠臣蔵ちゅうしんぐら)	Kuranosuke Ōishi (大石おおいし内蔵助くらのすけ)	All 52 episodes
1972–1974	Ronin of the Wilderness (荒野あらのの素す浪人ろうにん)	Kujūrō Tōge (峠とうげ九きゅう十じゅう郎ろう)	All 104 episodes, over two seasons; also producer
1973	Yojimbo of the Wilderness (荒野あらのの用心棒ようじんぼう)	Kujūrō Tōge (峠とうげ九きゅう十じゅう郎ろう)	5 episodes
1975	The Sword, the Wind, and the Lullaby (剣けんと風ふうと子守こもり唄うた)	Jūzaburō Toride (砦とりで十じゅう三さん郎ろう)	All 27 episodes
1976	The Secret Inspectors (隠かくし目付めつけ参上さんじょう)	Naizen-no-shō Tsukumo/Izu-no-kami Nobuakira Matsudaira (dual roles) (九十九つくも内膳ないぜん正ただし / 松平まつだいら伊豆いず守まもる信明のぶあき (二に役やく)	10 episodes [Ep. 1,2,3,4,7,10,11,18,22,26]
1976	Ronin in a Lawless Town (人魚にんぎょ亭てい異聞いぶん 無法むほう街がいの素す浪人ろうにん)	Mister Danna (ミスターの旦那だんな)	All 23 episodes
1977.07.16	Ōedo Sōsamō (大江戸おおえど捜査そうさ網もう)	Yūgen Ōtaki (大滝おおたき幽玄ゆうげん)	1 episode
1978	Falcons of Edo (江戸えどの鷹たか 御用ごよう部屋へや犯科はんか帖じょう)	Kanbei Uchiyama (内山うちやま勘兵衛かんべえ)	All 38 episodes
1979.04.02	Edo o Kiru IV (江戸えどを斬きるIV)	Shūsaku Chiba (千葉ちば周作しゅうさく)	1 episode special appearance [Ep. 8]
1979	Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima (検事けんじ霧島きりしま三郎さぶろう)	Chief Prosecutor Mori (森もり検事正けんじせい)
1979	Akō Rōshi (赤穂あこう浪士ろうし)	Sakon Tachibana (立花たちばな左近さこん)	1 episode
1979–1980	Fangs of Edo (江戸えどの牙きば)	Gunbei Asahina (朝比奈あさひな軍ぐん兵衛ひょうえ)	3 episodes [Ep. 1, 17, 26]
1979	Hideout in Room 7 (駆かけ込こみビル7号室ごうしつ)	Gōsuke Saegusa (三枝さえぐさ剛つよし介かい)
1980	Shōgun	Toranaga Yoshii	All 5 parts
1980.12.27	It's 8 O'Clock! Everybody Gather 'Round (8時じだョ!全員ぜんいん集合しゅうごう)	Himself	1 episode
1981	Sekigahara (関ヶ原せきがはら)	Sakon Shima (島しま左近さこん)	All 3 parts
1981–1982	Ten Duels of Young Shingo (新しん吾われ十じゅう番ばん勝負しょうぶ)	Tamon Umei (梅井うめい多聞たもん)	Two of three parts [Parts 1,2]
1981.07.09	My Daughter! Fly on the Wings of Love and Tears (娘むすめよ！ 愛あいと涙なみだの翼つばさで翔とべ)		TV film
1981.09.29	Tuesday Suspense Theater: The Spherical Wilderness (火曜かようサスペンス劇場げきじょう 球形きゅうけいの荒野あらの)	Kenichirō Nogami (野上のかみ顕一郎けんいちろう)	TV film
1981–1982	Bungo Detective Story (文吾ぶんご捕物とりもの帳ちょう)	Shūsaku Chiba (千葉ちば周作しゅうさく)	5 episodes [Ep. 5,10,13,18,26]
1981–1983	The Lowly Ronin (素す浪人ろうにん罷まかり通とおる)	Lowly Ronin Shūtō Shunka (素もと浪人ろうにん 春夏秋冬しゅんかしゅうとう)	TV film series, all 6 parts
1982.09.19	The Happy Yellow Handkerchief (幸福こうふくの黄色きいろいハンカチ)	Kenzō Shima (島しま謙造けんぞう)	1 episode [Ep. 4]
1983	The Brave Man Says Little (勇者ゆうしゃは語かたらず いま、日米にちべい自動車じどうしゃ戦争せんそうは)	Ryūzō Kawana (川奈かわな龍三りゅうぞう)	All 4 episodes
1983.11.03	The Women of Osaka Castle (女おんなたちの大だい坂城さかき)	Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川とくがわ家康いえやす)	TV film
1983.11.10	The Secret of Cruel Valley (魔境まきょう 殺生せっしょう谷だにの秘密ひみつ)	Lowly Rōnin	TV film
1984	The Burning Mountain River (山河さんが燃もえゆ)	Otoshichi Amō (天羽あもう乙おつ七なな)
1984.04.02	Okita Soji: Swordsman of Fire (燃もえて、散ちる 炎ほのおの剣士けんし 沖田おきた総司そうし)	Shūsai Kondō (近藤こんどう周あまね斎とき)	TV film
1984.08.26	Toshiba Sunday Theater #1442: Summer Encounter (東芝とうしば日曜にちよう劇場げきじょう 第だい1442回かい 夏なつの出逢であい)	Takeya Ōnuki (大貫おおぬき剛つよし也)	TV film
1987.09.10	Masterpiece Jidaigeki: National Advisor Breakthrough! Hikozaemon Geki (傑作けっさく時代じだい劇げき 天下てんかの御ご意見いけん番ばん罷まかり通とおる！彦左衛門ひこざえもん外がい記き)	Hikozaemon Ōkubo (大久保おおくぼ彦左衛門ひこざえもん)	1 episode [Ep. 21]
1990.04.20	Heaven and Earth: Dawn Episode (天てんと地ちと～黎明れいめい編へん)	Nagao Tamekage (長尾ながお為景ためかげ)	TV film

Awards and nominations

Mifune has won and been nominated for many awards during his acting career, including six Blue Ribbon Awards, three Mainichi Film Awards, three Japan Academy Film Prize nominations (winning two), and two Kinema Junpo Awards.

References

Sources

• Galbraith IV, Stuart (2002). The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-19982-8.
• Ryfle, Steve; Godziszewski, Ed (2017). Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 9780819570871.

External links

English

• Toshiro Mifune: Biographical details and selected filmography at the British Film Institute
• Toshirô Mifune at IMDb
• Toshiro Mifune interview by Gerald Peary on The Globe and Mail, June 6, 1986

Japanese

• Official website
• Toshiro Mifune at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)