60 free Toshiro Mifune trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Toshiro Mifune trivia quiz covers the most famous Japanese actor of the twentieth century, from a photography studio in occupied China to a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The easy questions are ones any film fan can attempt: the director he made sixteen films with, the movie remade as The Magnificent Seven, the ronin who inspired the Man with No Name, the American miniseries that made him a household name and the Spielberg comedy he appeared in. From there it moves through the Kurosawa years: Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, Rashomon at Venice, Throne of Blood's arrows, The Hidden Fortress and Star Wars, High and Low and the beard that ended the partnership. The harder end is for cinephiles: his birthplace in Qingdao, the wartime aerial photography unit, the Toho new faces audition, the lions he studied, his Spanish-language Mexican film, the two Volpi Cups, Hiroshi Inagaki's twenty films and the Samurai Trilogy, Hell in the Pacific's two-man cast, the Bond and Star Wars roles he declined, his martial arts teacher, Mifune Productions and Kurosawa's line about three feet of film. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Mifune, his films and his collaborators before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Akira Kurosawa, Japanese cinema and samurai films quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01With which director did Toshiro Mifune make sixteen films?
Akira Kurosawa
Mifune said he had never done anything as an actor he was proud of except with him.
Q 02In which present-day Chinese city was Mifune born in 1920?
Qingdao
His parents were Methodist missionaries in Japanese-occupied Shandong, and he spent his first 19 years in China.
Q 03What business did Mifune's father run, in which the young Toshiro worked?
A photography studio
Mifune later hoped to join Toho's camera department rather than act.
Q 04Where did Mifune serve during World War II?
The Aerial Photography section of Army Aviation
He later drew on his wartime experiences when asked to mime anger at his screen test.
Q 05Mifune got into films through a 1947 new faces contest at which studio?
Toho
A friend in the photography department sent in his resume; he was one of 49 accepted from about 4,000 applicants.
Q 06Which actress told Kurosawa about a promising young man at the audition, prompting him to attend?
Hideko Takamine
Kurosawa wrote that he saw a young man reeling around the room in a violent frenzy, like a wounded beast.
Q 07Kurosawa said Mifune could convey in three feet of film an emotion that took the average Japanese actor how much film?
Ten
He valued Mifune's effortless portrayal of unvarnished emotion, and found fault only with his rough voice.
Q 08Which 1948 Kurosawa film, considered the first yakuza movie, gave Mifune the role of the gangster Matsunaga?
Drunken Angel
Takashi Shimura played the alcoholic doctor Sanada who treats him.
Q 09In Stray Dog (1949), Mifune plays a detective who has what stolen on a crowded trolley?
His Colt pistol
Detective Murakami spends the film hunting for it through post-war Tokyo.
Q 10Which character does Mifune play in Rashomon?
The bandit Tajōmaru
The film tells the same crime from contradictory points of view.
Q 11Rashomon won which top prize at Venice, becoming the first Japanese film to gain major international acclaim?
The Golden Lion
It earned roughly $800,000 abroad.
Q 12What animals did Mifune reportedly study on film to prepare for Rashomon and Seven Samurai?
Lions
His wild, scratching, growling recruit in Seven Samurai was based on a lion.
Q 13What is the name of Mifune's wild, self-proclaimed samurai in Seven Samurai?
Kikuchiyo
He is accepted into the group only after attempts to drive him away fail.
Kurosawa's 1954 epic about villagers hiring warriors was famously remade in 1960 as which Hollywood western?
Q 21In High and Low, Mifune plays Kingo Gondo, an executive in what industry?
Shoes
A kidnapper mistakenly abducts his chauffeur's son instead of his own.
Q 22High and Low was loosely adapted from a novel by which American crime writer?
Evan Hunter
The 1959 novel was King's Ransom, written under his Ed McBain persona's 87th Precinct series.
Q 23Which 1965 film was the last Mifune-Kurosawa collaboration?
Red Beard
Its two-year shoot kept him from other work and drove his production company into debt.
Why did the last Kurosawa film prevent Mifune from taking other roles during its two-year shoot?
The Magnificent Seven
Its story and approach to action have been reiterated many times since.
Q 15Throne of Blood, in which Mifune plays Washizu, adapts which Shakespeare play?
Macbeth
Kurosawa later adapted King Lear as Ran.
Q 16How was the famous death scene of Mifune's character in Throne of Blood staged?
Archers shot real arrows around him
Kurosawa changed the ending to include the volley of arrows.
Q 17Mifune plays General Makabe Rokurōta in which 1958 Kurosawa film that influenced Star Wars?
The Hidden Fortress
Two bickering peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, foreshadow C-3PO and R2-D2.
Q 18In Yojimbo, Mifune's ronin invents his name after looking at what?
A mulberry field
Kuwabatake means mulberry field and Sanjuro means thirty years old.
Q 19Which Sergio Leone film plagiarised Yojimbo, prompting a lawsuit by Toho?
A Fistful of Dollars
Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name is a version of Mifune's nameless ronin.
Q 20How many times did Mifune win the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice?
Twice
The wins came in 1961 for Yojimbo and 1965 for Red Beard.
He had to keep his natural facial hair the whole time
The lost income put Mifune Productions deeply into debt and strained the partnership.
Q 25Mifune played which legendary swordsman in Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy?
Miyamoto Musashi
The first film won an Honorary Academy Award.
Q 26How many films did Mifune make with Hiroshi Inagaki, more than with Kurosawa?
Twenty
All but two were period pieces, including Rickshaw Man, which won the Golden Lion at Venice.
Q 27Which admiral did Mifune portray in three different films?
Isoroku Yamamoto
One of them was the 1976 Hollywood war film Midway.
Q 28For the 1962 Mexican film Ánimas Trujano, Mifune learned to deliver all his lines in what language?
Spanish
Many Mexicans believed he could have passed for a native of Oaxaca; the film was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
Q 29Which 1966 motor-racing film was Mifune's Hollywood debut?
Grand Prix
James Garner, Yves Montand and Eva Marie Saint led the ensemble.
Q 30Hell in the Pacific (1968) has only two actors: Mifune and whom?
Lee Marvin
John Boorman directed the two-man survival drama.