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Toshiro Mifune, actor and film and television producer: born Qingdao, Manchuria 1 April 1920; married 1950 Sachiko Yoshimine (deceased; two sons; marriage dissolved 1970), secondly Miki Kitagawa (one daughter); died Tokyo 24 December 1997.

It was the very great director Akiro Kurosawa who discovered Toshiro Mifune, the greatest of all Japanese movie actors, and starred him in a dozen or so absolute masterpieces. In all, Mifune made about 130 films, but it is mainly Kurosawa's that he is remembered by. Because of their international success, their star became known in Japan as Sakai no Mifune or "World-wide Mifune".

He was born in 1920 in Manchuria, where his parents were stationed and where his father had a photographic studio. He was educated at Dairen High School, where he excelled at national sports like karate, archery and swordsmanship, skills that were to serve him well in his screen career. For a while, he took over his father's photography business, and because of his experience of photographic techniques he was assigned to a photography unit when war broke out and he joined the air force. He hated it.

At the end of the war he went to Tokyo and stayed with a friend who was working as a cameraman at the Toho Movie Company and who encouraged him to apply for a job there. He sent in his CV, but, as luck would have it, the document was sent by mistake to the casting department, which was just then mounting a search for "new faces" on the cinema screen. Four thousand people applied, of whom 16 men were chosen, including Mifune. They were trained in acting before the cameras by an old director, Eizo Tanaka, for three months.

Mifune's first, unremarkable screen appearance was in 1946, in Shin baka jidai ("New Age Follies"). But he was noticed by Kurosawa, who had written the scenario for Mifune's second movie, the 1947 Gintei no hate ("Over the Silver Peak"), directed by Sankichi Taniguchi and also starring another Kurosawa discover

Toshiro Mifune (三船 敏郎 Mifune Toshirō, April 1, 1920 – December 24, 1997) was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration (1948–65) with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa in such works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo. He also portrayed Musashi Miyamoto in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy, as well as Lord Toranaga in the NBC TV miniseries Shōgun.

Early life

Toshiro Mifune was born on 1 April 1920 in Qingdao, Shandong, China, to Japanese parents. His parents were Methodist missionaries working there. Mifune grew up with his parents and two younger siblings in Dalian, Liaoning, China, and, from 4 to 19 years of age, in Manchuria. Mifune was a Christian born to Missionary parents.

In his youth, Mifune worked in the photography shop of his father Tokuzo, a commercial photographer and importer who had emigrated from northern Japan. After spending the first 19 years of his life in China, as a Japanese citizen, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army Aviation division, where he served in the Aerial Photography unit during World War II.

Early work

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.

At this time, a large number of Toho actors, after a prolonged strike, had left to form their own company, Shin Toho. Toho then 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.

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The great thing about Northampton is that you can go out for ice cream and anything can happen.

And, so it was that my grapefruit sorbet got smooshed in with Hurricane Katrina, crumbled up Heath bar, the Japanese tsunami, James Dean, the Drunk Stuntmen, Toshiro Mifune, New Orleans jazz and much, much more.

It started innocently enough, with my wife and me going to Herrell's ice cream to break up a Sunday afternoon. We were half way through our treats when a Japanese television crew poured in, cameras cranking. Owners Steve and Judy Herrell popped up, and my first thought was, "They're cutting the line."

In bits and pieces, we got the explanation. Japanese television was in town making a documentary. It involved Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami and the bond of music. Steve Sanderson, of the Drunk Stuntmen, who sings with the Young@Heart Chorus, fleshed out the story from a corner table. It goes something like this:

The Japanese, being great lovers of American jazz, rose to the occasion after Katrina wrecked New Orleans in 2005 and donated numerous instruments to musicians who had lost their stuff in the flood. When the tsunami swept through the Sendai region of Japan last year, New Orleans returned the favor.

The exchange of instruments inspired the idea for a documentary called, "The Power of Music." At the core of the piece is a musical collage blending various renditions of the 1961 Japanese pop hit "Sukiyaki." One of the featured performers is a New Orleans high-school marching band. Another is Northampton's own Young@Heart Chorus, that intrepid group of elders that faces squarely into the sunset as they sing. (Sanderson, a youngster, performs a host of administrative functions f