Friday, February 17, 2012

Seven Samuari Flag - by Akira Kurosawa

Seven Samurai Flag
Japanese Film by Akira Kurosawa 1954


A flag from one of the greatest and legendary directors from the 1950s - Akira Kurosawa. The Seven Samuari 1954 was an epic ground breaking film for Japan. A small farming village hires Samurai to defend itself from thugs and bandits.

The flag of the Seven Samurai is the typical long banner used in feudal era Japan. It has six circles that represent six samurai and a triangle to represent the non-conformist Kukuchiyo. Along the bottom is the hiragana letter 'ta' which oddly looks like the English spelling for 'ta.' However in this case it represents the farmers.

Something akin to the Japanese version of Citizen Kane or rather Citizen Kane is the American version of the Seven Samurai. Both movies penetrate deep in the respective psyche of their nations. Both Welles and Kurosawa lived though the same time period and were respective artists in the medium of film.

1950s Movie Poster

Japanese Samurai movies were something like American Westerns in their old charm and good guy vs. bad guy mentality. Likewise they have been called spaghetti-samurai drama just as American has spaghetti-westerns.


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