Out after 10 Years (7): Paying Respect to Kurosawa and Mifune

Japanese movies, particularly Akira Kurosawa's, were amongst very few foreign movies were shown on TV when I was growing up in the old country. Films such Yujimbo, Red Beard and most notably Seven Samurai which was the inspiration to make The Magnificent Seven by John Sturges! Other foreign movies shown were WWII war movies where Slovak people of different former Eastern Bloc countries were fighting the Germans, at times some heavily altered and censored British and American movies. Going back to the subject, majority of Kurosawa movies which were shown are about old feudal Japan where people fought over territory, money and generally everything worth fighting for and hired Samurai warrior. Women do not have major roles in majority of the plots. There're some movies with women having role including Rashomon and Hidden Fortress but those movies were never shown because the authorities would have had to remove the majority of the scenes! Kurosawa had a long collaboration with Tashiro Mifune who had many first roles in his movies including all the above.

This week I decided to pay my respect to two of my all-time favorite artists Kurosawa and Mifune by visiting their graves. I visited their related cemeteries in two different days. Kurosawa is buried in a small cemetery in a very beautiful and small town called Kamakura in Kanagawa. 

It is quite surprising that the town has no mentioning of this great director! It's impossible to find someone's grave in Japan if you don't know Japanese and I only had a photo and as I said the cemetery is small, so I found it! It's probably only 15 minutes' walk from the train station and of course because no foreigner goes that way, people look at you strangely, although there was barely anyone on the street on that side of the town! The cemetery is surrounded by residential buildings and the background of the picture helped me to easily find the grave quickly. No picture, no flag, no banner, no nothing! Kurosawa is rested there 1998. He is buried like an ordinary man but he's no ordinary, this man, who is regarded as one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema!

Mifune's grave in another. He was born in China but of course he was a Japanese. This is the discussion I always have with people: Your birthplace does not tell you what you are. What you do and what you believe tell what you are.

I went to Kawasaki in another day, and this is surprisingly part of Kanagawa but all the way at the other side! getting there was not easy either. I mean going everywhere easy in Japan as long as you follow the train route but it's not always possible! To get there I went over Tama River and at the last station there is supposed to be a shuttle but to take you there but considering the trouble I had to go to make them understand where I was going, I scratched that and followed Google Maps in a rainy, humid and hot day! 

The cemetery that is known in Google Maps as 春秋苑(!) is less than 15 minutes from Ikuta station and is a huge cemetery and is built in multiple steps. There's also a funeral home adjacent to it but I didn't even think of asking anyone! The background again and the shape of the next grave, in this case, both help me to find the resting piece of Mifune but this time it took much longer, and it was raining. I almost was ready to leave as I always fear I might be late, even on a trip that you cannot be late for anything, but the next visit and I suddenly found it. I took a few pictures and headed back to the station. Thanks Kurosawa and Mifune for what you did nearly 60 years ago. You gave me lots of fun when I was a kid in a society that nothing else was available. I still have to watch every movie at least once again.

(Photo, top: Kurosawa's grave in Anyo-in Temple in Kamakura)