Toshiro Mifune

Quick Facts

Date of Birth4/1/1920

Date of Death12/24/1997

Country of OriginJapan

OccupationSoldier, Actor

Biography

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor, famous for roles of samurai and swordsmen. He was born on 1 April 1920 in Qingdao in China's Shandong Province. In 1940–1945 he served in an aerial photography unit of the army air force of the Imperial Japanese Army with the rank of sergeant. In 1947 the Toho studio chose him from about 4000 applicants.

His sword instructor was Yoshio Sugino (1904–1998) of the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu school, who also mastered judo and aikido and studied with Kunisaburo Iizuka, Morihei Ueshiba and Jigoro Kano. In 1953 Sugino was asked to train the actors in swordsmanship for Seven Samurai, and he also prepared the duels for the films Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo and for Hiroshi Inagaki's samurai trilogy. His choreography moved away from kabuki influences and strove for the most realistic duels possible. Mifune himself stressed that he was an actor, not a swordsman. He played samurai as rough, coarse warriors and prepared for roles, among other things, by studying footage of lions.

With Akira Kurosawa he made a total of 16 films in 1948–1965, from Drunken Angel (1948) through Rashomon (1950) and Seven Samurai (1954) to Red Beard (1965). He also appeared in the film Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954). In Yojimbo (1961) he portrayed the wandering ronin Kuwabatake Sanjuro. For his roles in Yojimbo and Red Beard he won the Volpi Cup for best actor in Venice. Later he also appeared in foreign productions, for example the series Shogun (1980).

He died on 24 December 1997 in Mitaka, Tokyo, at the age of 77. In 2016 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Teachers, students and family

Filmography

A screen role does not mean the person actually practises the art — that is listed above.