Yojimbo
1961 film directed by Akira Kurosawa
Yojimbo (Japanese: 用心棒, Hepburn: Yōjinbō; lit. Bodyguard) is a 1961 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa, who also co-wrote the screenplay and was one of the producers. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Atsushi Watanabe. In the film, a rōnin arrives in a small town where competing crime lords fight for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard.
Based on the success of Yojimbo, Kurosawa's next film, Sanjuro (1962), was altered to incorporate the lead character of this film. In both films, the character wears a worn dark kimono bearing the same family mon.
The film was released and produced by Toho on April 25, 1961. Yojimbo received highly positive reviews, and, over the years, became widely regarded as one of the best films by Kurosawa. The film grossed an estimated US$2.5 million worldwide with a budget of ¥90.87 million ($631,000).
The public source identifies “Yojimbo” as 1961 film directed by Akira Kurosawa. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Yojimbo, film and directed.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20475. VIAF identifies the subject as 316751676. The Library of Congress control number is n2007061935. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961 and 1962.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yojimbo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.