Toshiro Mifune Short biography
Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. He is best known for his starring roles in Akira Kurosawa's critically acclaimed jidaigeki films such as Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), and Yojimbo (1961). He also portrayed Miyamoto Musashi in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy (1954–1956), Lord Toranaga in the NBC television miniseries Shōgun, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in three different films. Mifune is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time.
Mifune was born on April 1, 1920, in Qingdao, China, to Japanese parents. He was the eldest son of Tokuzo and Sen Mifune. His father was a trade merchant and photographer who ran a photography business in Qingdao and Yingkou and was originally the son of a medical doctor from Kawauchi, Akita Prefecture. His mother Sen was the daughter of a hatamoto, a high-ranking samurai official.
Mifune's parents, who were working as Methodist missionaries, were some of the Japanese citizens encouraged to live in Shandong by the Japanese government during its occupation before the Republic of China took over the city in 1922. Mifune grew up with his parents and two younger siblings in Dalian, Fengtian from the age of 4 to 19.
