Everything about Toshir Mifune totally explained
Toshirō Mifune (
Mifune Toshirō [miɸɯnetoɕiɺoː],
1 April,
1920 –
24 December,
1997) was a
Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170
feature films. He is best known for his collaboration with filmmaker
Akira Kurosawa in films like
Rashomon,
Seven Samurai, and
Yojimbo. He is also popular for portraying
Miyamoto Musashi in
Hiroshi Inagaki's
Samurai Trilogy.
Childhood
Toshirō Mifune was born in
Qingdao,
China, to Japanese parents, and grew up in the Chinese city of
Dalian with his parents and two siblings. In his youth, Mifune worked in the
photography shop of his father Tokuzo, a commercial photographer and
importer who had emigrated from northern Japan.
Tokuzo was a
Methodist, and there's evidence that he was also a
missionary, ministering to the
ethnic Japanese Christians in Dalian.
Although the young Mifune spent the first 19 years of his life in China, as a Japanese citizen he was drafted into the
Imperial Japanese Air Force, where he served in the Aerial Photography (Ko-type) unit during
World War II. He
repatriated to Japan in 1946.
Entry into show business
In 1947, one of Mifune's friends who worked for the
Photography Department of
Toho Productions suggested Mifune try out for the Photography Department. He was accepted for a position as an assistant
cameraman. However, the union was affiliated with the
Communist party, which made Mifune, a religiously
conservative man, very uncomfortable.
At this time, a large number of Toho actors, after a prolonged
strike, had left to form their own company. The studio organized a "new faces" contest to find new talent. Mifune's friends submitted an application and photo, without his knowledge. He was accepted, along with 48 others (out of roughly 4000 applicants), and allowed to take a screen test for
Kajiro 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.
Marriage
One of 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.
Yoshimine's parents were strongly opposed to the union. Mifune was doubly an outsider, being a non-
Buddhist as well as a native
Manchurian. His choice of profession also made him suspect, as actors were generally assumed to be irresponsible and financially incapable of supporting a family.
Director Senkichi Taniguchi, with the help of
Akira Kurosawa, convinced the Yoshimine family to allow the marriage. It took place in February of 1950. In November of the same year, their first son
Shiro was born. In 1955, they'd a second son, Takeshi. Mifune's daughter
Mika was born to his mistress, actress
Mika Kitagawa, in 1982.
Popularity
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 a
samurai or
ronin, who was 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 highly valued Mifune 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.
On the other hand, his portrayal of
Musashi Miyamoto in
Hiroshi Inagaki's
Samurai Trilogy is deliberately made to become the epitome of samurai honour and manners.
Mifune was famous for his self-deprecating sense of
humor, which often found its way into his film roles. He was renowned 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
Ánimas Trujano, he studied tapes of
Mexican actors speaking, so he could recite all his lines in
Spanish. In his earliest film roles in
English like
Grand Prix, made in 1966, he learned his lines phonetically. This met with limited success and his voice was often dubbed by
Paul Frees. By the time he made
Red Sun in 1971 he'd become somewhat more proficent in the language and his voice is heard throughout this multinational western. He was always disappointed that he didn't have a larger career in the West. His most prominent English-language role was probably playing Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto in
Midway.
Early in the development of, director
George Lucas reportedly considered Mifune for the role of
Obi-Wan Kenobi. He had played an analogous role (General Rokurota) in
The Hidden Fortress, a film greatly admired by Lucas. Its plot and characters have some parallels that Lucas carried into his first Star Wars film.
Mifune has been credited as originating the "roving warrior"
archetype, which he perfected during his collaboration with Kurosawa.
Clint Eastwood was among the first of many
American actors to adopt this persona, which he used to great effect in his
Western roles, especially the
spaghetti westerns made with
Sergio Leone.
Most of the sixteen Kurosawa–Mifune films are considered cinema classics. These include
Rashomon,
Stray Dog,
Seven Samurai,
The Hidden Fortress,
High and Low,
Throne of Blood (an adaptation of
Shakespeare's MacBeth),
Yojimbo, and
Sanjuro. (See filmography, below)
Mifune and Kurosawa finally parted ways after
Red Beard. Several factors contributed to the rift that ended this career-spanning collaboration. Most of Mifune's contemporaries acted in several different movies throughout the year. Since
Red Beard required Mifune to grow a natural beard — one he'd 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 apparently attempted suicide. In 1980, Mifune experienced popularity with mainstream American audiences through his role as Lord Toranaga in the television miniseries
Shogun. Yet Kurosawa didn't rejoice in his estranged friend's success, and publicly made derisive remarks about
Shogun.
Later life
Early in the 1980s, Mifune founded an
acting school, Mifune Geijutsu Gakuin . The school failed after only three years, due to mismanaged finances.
Mifune received wider audience acclaim in the West than he ever had after playing
Toranaga in the 1980
miniseries Shogun. However, the series' historically accurate yet blunt portrayal of the Japanese shogunate and the greatly abridged version shown in Japan meant that it wasn't as well received in his homeland. It deepened the rift with Kurosawa, virtually ensuring that they wouldn't work together again.
The relationship between the two men remained ambivalent. While Kurosawa made some very uncharitable comments about Mifune's acting, he also admitted in an interview in Interview magazine that 'all the films that I made with Mifune, without him, they wouldn't exist.' He also presented Mifune with the Kawashita award which he himself had won two years prior. They finally made something of a reconciliation in 1993 at the
funeral of their friend
Ishiro Honda. After making tenuous eye contact, they tearfully embraced one another, ending nearly three decades of mutual avoidance. They never collaborated again, however, nor did they've a chance to restore their friendship fully. Both died within a year of the other.
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. For whatever reason, he abruptly retreated from public life and remained largely confined to his home, cared for by his estranged wife Sachiko. When she succumbed to
pancreatic cancer in 1995, Mifune's physical and mental state began to decline rapidly.
He died in
Mitaka,
Japan, of multiple organ failure at the age of 77.
Honors
Mifune was awarded the
Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government in 1993.
Personal quotes
Of Akira Kurosawa, Mifune said, "I am proud of nothing I've done other than with him."
"Mifune had a kind of talent I'd 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'd ever seen in a Japanese actor. And yet with all his quickness, he also had surprisingly fine sensibilities." - Akira Kurosawa
Filmography
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 titles used in the United States.
Television Appearances
All shows aired in Japan except for
Shogun which aired in the U.S.
1968 The Masterless Samurai - 6 one hour episodes
1971 Daichūshingura - 52 one hour episodes
1972 Ronin of the Wilderness - 104 one hour episodes
1973 Yojimbo of the Wilderness - 5 one hour episodes
1976 The Sword, The Wind and the Lullaby - 27 one hour episodes
1977 Ronin in a Lawless Town - 23 one hour episodes
1978 The Spy Appears - 5 one hour episodes
1978 An Eagle in Edo - 38 one hour episodes
1979 Hideout in a Suite - 11 one hour episodes
1980 Shogun - parts 1 & 5 159 minutes parts 2-4 93 minutes
1981 Sekigahara - one seven hour episode
1981 Bungo's Detective Notes - 3 one hour episodes
1981 The Ten Battles of Shingo - 2 one hour episodes
1981 My Daughter! Fly on the Wings of Love and Tears - 1 two hour episode
1981 The Crescent Shaped Wilderness - 1 two hour episode
1982 The Ronin's Path - 5 two hour episodes
1982 The Happy Yellow Handkerchief - 1 two hour episode
1983 The Brave Man Says Little - 1 eight hour episode
1983 The Ronin's Path vol. 5 - 1 one hour episode
1983 Ronin-Secret of the Wilderness Valley - 1 one hour episode
1984 Soshi Okita, Burning Corpse of a Sword Master - 1 one hour episode
1984 The Burning Mountain River - 51 episodesFurther Information
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