Kurosawa Akira understood the American western beyond the mythos of the lone warrior. The western is one of the most political of genres, concerned with how resources are dispersed. The struggle in American westerns between various enforcers embodies the tug of war between the working-class and robber barons, and Kurosawa saw in these stories parallels to Japan’s fraught cultural shifts. In the case of 1961’s Yojimbo, and to a lesser extent its sequel, 1962’s Sanjuro, he uses the western template to riff on Japan’s postwar leap into capitalism.

The very first conversation in Yojimbo is between a ronin who calls himself Sanjuro (Mifune Toshiro) and a man who regrets the new generation’s obsession with money. Kurosawa stages this encounter as a comic scene, but the man’s alienation stings, especially as Kurosawa lingers on the rhythmic sound of his wife working her loom for the silk she weaves as a side hustle.