Toshiro Mifune

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Toshiro Mifune (Mifune Toshiro, April 1, 1920 – December 24, 1997), a Japanese actor who appeared in more than 150 feature films.

He is best known for his 16-film collaboration (1948–65) with Akira Kurosawa, including Rashomon, Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo.

In Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy and one earlier Inagaki film, Lord Toranaga, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in three separate films, he also portrayed Miyamoto Musashi.

Early life

Toshiro Mifune was born on April 1, 1920 in a swanky Shandong (present-day Qingdao, China), the eldest son of Tokuzo and Sen Mifune. Tokuzo's father, a businessman and photographer who operated a photography studio in Qingdao and Yingkou, and he was the son of a medical doctor from Kawauchi, Akita Prefecture, Japan. Sen Sen was the daughter of a hatamoto, a high-ranking samurai official. The parents of Toshiro, who were serving as Methodist missionaries, were among the Japanese citizens encouraged to live in Shandong during the Japanese government's reign before the Republic of China took over the city in 1922. Mifune grew up in Dalian, Fengtian, with his two older siblings from the age of 4 to 19.

Mifune used to work at his father's photo studio as a youth. After living in China for the first 19 years as a Japanese national, he was recruited into the Imperial Japanese Army Aviation division, where he served in the Aerial Photography unit during World War II.

Early work

Following a long strike, a large number of Toho actors were left to found Shin Toho, their own company. Toho then held a "new faces" competition to find new talent.

Nenji Oyama, a friend of Mifune's who worked in Toho Productions, told Mifune that Mifune's resume would be able to transfer to the Photography Department if he so desired. He was accepted along with 48 others (out of about 4000 applicants) and given the opportunity to take a screen test for Kajir Yamamoto. He drew from his wartime experiences when he was taught to mime outrage. Yamamoto took to Mifune and suggested him to director Senkichi Taniya. In Shin Baka Jidai, Mifune's first film role appeared.

Mifune first encountered director Akira Kurosawa when Toho Studios, Japan's biggest film production company, launched a massive talent hunt, during which hundreds of young actors auditioned before a team of judges. Kurosawa had intended to miss the performance but Hideko Takamine told him of one celebrity who seemed particularly promising. Kurosawa later wrote that he arrived at the audition to find "a young man fluttering about the room in a violent riot... it was as terrifying as seeing a injured animal trying to break loose. "I was transfixed." As Mifune, who had been drained, finished his sentence, he sat down and gave the judges a ominous look. He lost the tournament, but Kurosawa was impressed. "I am a person who is seldom impressed by actors," he later said. "But I was completely overwhelmed in the case of Mifune." Mifune plunged himself into six-month training and dedicate himself to acting, but first he wanted to be transferred to the camera department, but at first he was eager to be moved to the film department.

Later life and death

Mifune appeared in the Steven Spielberg war comedy 1941 as the commander of a missing Imperial Japanese Navy submarine searching for Hollywood right after the Pearl Harbor attack. Mifune received acclaim in the West after appearing in the 1980 TV miniseries Shogun. However, the series's frank portrayal of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the heavily abridged version in Japan meant that it was not as popular in his homeland as it was in Japan.

Kurosawa and Mifune's friendship remained ambivalent. In an Interview magazine, Kurosawa attacked Mifune's performance and then said, "All the films that I made with Mifune would not exist without him." Mifune was also presented with the Kawashita award, which he had won two years ago. They often interacted professionally and met again in 1993 at the funeral of their friend Ishir Honda but never worked together again.

Mifune was suffering from a serious unknown health condition in 1992. It has been argued that he destroyed his health as a result of overwork, suffered a heart attack, or suffered a stroke. He resigned from public life and remained largely housed in his house, being cared for by his estranged wife Sachiko. Mifune's physical and mental condition worsened rapidly when she died of pancreatic cancer in 1995.

He died in Mitaka, Tokyo, of multiple organ failure at the age of 77.

Mifune has twice won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, both 1961 and 1965. In 1986, Mifune was awarded the Purple Ribbon and the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government in 1993. He appeared at the 8th Moscow International Film Festival in 1973. He appeared on the jury at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival in 1977.

Mifune was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 14, 2016, at 6912 Hollywood Boulevard, for his work in the motion picture industry.

The Turner Classic Movies channel honored Mifune in its "Under The Stars" series, airing several of his films on August 19, 2022.

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