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Blues
19th April 2001, 16:30
I know that one of Akira Kurosawa's earliest movies was Sugata Sanshiro - in English called "Judo Saga".

I haven't seen this movie, but I read in the book The last samurai (by Helen DeWitt) that the movie is based on a book, presumably by the same name.

My question is: does anyone know who wrote that book or if it has been translated to English? I couldn't find any reference to it on Amazon.com.

Devon Smith
19th April 2001, 17:16
There's a bit of info here: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/films/reviews/sanshiro.html , which mentions the novel Sugata Sanshiro by Tsuneo Tomita, but I find no indication on the 'net mentioning an English translation

MarkF
20th April 2001, 13:04
Sanshiro Sugata was written by the son of Tomita, one of the "Shitenno" or the four "heavenly lords" in the infamous Tokyo Police department shiai, or shi-ni-ai, and is said to be based on the life of Saigo Shiro, the one truly magnificent match of the day.

See http://www.furyu.com/archives/issue3/judo.html for a great description of that particular match.

The movie was made in 1943 and the screenplay was written and directed by Akira kurosawa, his first attempt. Since it was heavily censored in that year, the movie was remade and released in 1965 with Toshiro Mifune, as Yano (Jigoro Kano).

As to "The Last Samurai" could you be thinking of the film "The Seven Samurai" also directed by Kurosawa.

As to "The Judo Saga," there is much more action in the remake than the original, but even then, the scene by the river in which Yano chunks a bunch of jujutsu "thugs" is priceless. However, as much as the actor in the first who played Yano looks like Kano, Mifune had the character down cold.

From what is known of Saigo Shiro, it is a pretty close and thinly veiled non-fiction fiction of his life. He is said to have been only fourteen at the time of this shiai.

No known book exists, to my knowledge, in English.

Mark

Joseph Svinth
21st April 2001, 21:36
Henri Plee published English and French translations of portions of the story in *Judo Kodokan Revue* during the late 1950s.

Unfortunately, I have no idea where you would find these today, except perhaps in French national-level libraries akin to the British Library and the Library of Congress.

Blues
23rd April 2001, 10:03
Thank you very much. I was afraid no English translation existed for a book this obscure. I'll definitely have a look at any version of the movie though, when I have the chance.

Mark, I don't know exactly what you meant with your remark about Seven Samurai, but I have (of course) seen the movie.

And I at least want to mention how good of a book The Last Samurai is to the people that do not know it: it's a very funny and intelligently written book that has the movie Seven Samurai as a main theme.