In this video, I will analyze Akira Kurosawa’s 1962 film Sanjuro through the writings of Sun Tzu and his book ‘The Art of War’. Thanks for watching this video and please subscribe and leave a like at the end.
Sanjuro is told in 2 parts with the main character acting as both a teacher and as a student. In the beginning, Sanjuro acts as teacher to 9 young Samurais. The 1st lesson he teaches them is to not judge a book by its cover. The young samurais are fed up with government corruption and take a petition to weed out wrongdoing to their chamberlain. But when this chamberlain who happens to be ugly rejects their petition, they go to the superintendent whose good looks makes him seem truthful. He instructs all of them to wait for him at a local shrine. Luckily, Sanjuro happens to be sleeping at the shrine and overhears them. He warns the young men that the superintendent is setting a trap to kill them all. At first, they don’t believe him because his socks are full of holes and he looks like a beggar. He tells them to take a peek out the window and when they do they see men with swords surrounding the place. Sanjuro gets them out of this jam by trickery and decides to help them rescue the chamberlain, his wife, and daughter who have been kidnapped by the superintendent.
The 2nd aspect of the film’s plot involves Sanjuro becoming a student to a wise soft-spoken woman who teaches him how to conquer his enemies—and even make those enemies allies— without drawing his sword.
The Art of War chapter 3, Attack by stratagem using the sheathed sword:
Sun Tzu:
“In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them. Hence, to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”
The Art of War Chapter 9, The Army on the March
To smoke out the chamberlain’s supporters who remain anonymous, the superintendent comes up with a plan to use the chamberlain’s empty palanquin as bait. The samurais will take the bait by believing they are rescuing their chamberlain and be caught. As planned, the samurai see the empty palanquins and prepare to rescue their chamberlain. Again, Sanjuro is with them and they ignore his warning. He warns them again. They tell him to be quiet and at this precise moment a large number of guards arrive on horseback to assist the superintendent. Sun Tzu:
“If his place of encampment is easy of access, he is tendering a bait.”
The guards are friends of the superintendent and came to escort the palanquins through the woods. Sun Tzu:
“He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them.”
The Art of War CHAPTER 2, WAGING WAR
Early in the film, Sanjuro and the young Samurais rescue the chamberlain’s daughter and wife and take 1 of Muroto’s guards as a hostage. When the guard refuses to tell them where the superintendent is hiding the chamberlain, Sanjuro orders the samurais to kill the guard. The chamberlain’s wife, however, tells Sanjuro that he mustn’t kill the guard. Sun Tzu:
“Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy.”
They detain the guard in a closet at Izaki’s house. After being saved again by Sanjuro, the young samurais return to the house and find the guard out of the closet, eating, drinking sake, and wearing Izaki’s best kimono. The old woman let him out the closet, fed him, and gave him Izaki’s kimono. The guard could have easily escaped before the Samurais returned but he stayed their prisoner because the old lady was kind to him and trusted him. Prior to being captured, the guard had heard stories about how cruel the young samurais were and found those stories to be false. After telling the samurais this, the guard finishes his food, his sake, and returns to the closet. Sun Tzu:
“Captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one's own strength.”
Also:
“Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.”
The Art of War Chapter 4, Tactical Dispositions
The daughter of the kidnapped chamberlain, escapes when the guards send her out to bring them more sake. Sanjuro tells the samurais to let the girl take sake to the guards and get them nice and drunk. This will make it much easier to rescue the girl and her mother. Sun Tzu:
“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”
The Art of War Chapter 5, Energy
Sanjuro’s outward appearance is as a peasant and a beggar whose social status and physical appearance cause the samurais to devalue his character and intelligence. Sun Tzu:
“Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline, simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength. Hiding order beneath the cloak of disorder is simply a question of subdivision; concealing courage under a show of timidity presupposes a fund of latent energy; masking strength with weakness is to be effected by tactical dispositions.”
The 1st weakness the samurais must overcome is the falsehood of outer appearances. They disbelieve their chamberlain who is ugly and trust the superintendent who is pleasant looking. Sanjuro reminds the samurais of the chamberlain’s warning: “The worst one is beyond your imagination,” referring to people like the superintendent whose outward appearance is deceptive.
The Art of War Chapter 6, Weak Points and Strong
Sanjuro tells the samurais that the superintendent plans to kill the chamberlain soon and that they should stir up public concern over the chamberlain’s whereabouts. But before the samurai can act on this advice, the superintendent posts a public notice detailing the chamberlain’s crimes which they are actually framing him for. The notice warns the public not to let the chamberlain’s supporters agitate them. By the superintendent remaining quiet, Sanjuro and the samurai can’t make a move without exposing themselves but Sanjuro comes up with a counter move—the superintendent doesn’t know their true numbers and that there are only 9 samurais-10 including himself. Sanjuro, acting as a double agent, warns Muroto that the chamberlain’s supporters number 130 men! Sun Tzu:
“Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us.”
The samurais discover that the chamberlain is being held next door to Izaki’s house. Sanjuro goes next door to Kurofuji’s mansion to tell Muroto that the chamberlain’s supporters are at Komyo temple. He happened to be on the 2nd floor in the temple and the supporters are using the temple as their hideout. Muroto and his guards leave but Sanjuro stays behind, claiming to be hungry. Once the mansion is empty, he goes out to the garden and gathers camellias to send down the stream to the samurais—this is the signal to come rescue the chamberlain! Muroto doubles back and catches Sanjuro red-handed. Then, more bad news: Takebayashi runs in to tell Muroto that Sanjuro lied about Komyo temple. Earlier, Sanjuro told Muroto he had witnessed the chamberlain’s supporters from the 2nd floor of the temple; the temple has no 2nd floor! Muroto is pissed! He has Sanjuro tied up and rushes off to bring back their army to help guard the mansion.
Takebayashi and Kukui are left with Sanjuro who laughs and warns them that the chamberlain’s supporters will storm the mansion and kill them if they don’t see any camellias coming down the stream. Takebayashi and Kukui doubt Sanjuro’s story until Takebayashi peeks over the wall and sees a samurai by the stream, waiting. The door behind the samurai is jam-packed with samurais (the door is small making them appear more than 9). The old man goes back and verifies Sanjuro’s story. Sanjuro offers them a deal: he’ll give them the signal for 50 pieces of gold. They agree and he tells them not to send red camellias downstream; red camellias mean attack. Instead, he instructs the old men to send white camellias downstream; white camellias mean stop. No camellias mean he’s in trouble! Kukui and Takebayashi dump as many white camellias as they can into the stream. In moments, Ikari and his fellow samurais storm the mansion, rescuing both Sanjuro and the chamberlain. (in this example, Sanjuro plays on the fears of Kukui and Takebayashi that an army will storm the mansion if they don’t get a signal). Sun Tzu:
“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.”
And also:
“Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.”
The Art of War Chapter 7, Maneuvering
recap:
The superintendent deceives the samurais by 1) being physically attractive since beauty is generally associated with virtue; 2) making the samurais believe that he sympathizes with their petition after the chamberlain, who is very ugly (a characteristic generally associated with evil) turns down their petition to weed out corruption
Sanjuro’s appearance is also deceptive: he begs for food, has holey socks and wears raggedy clothes—in other words, his appearance stereotypes him as someone of little character, pride, organization, or intelligence. When the samurais offer him a bag of gold for saving their lives, he takes 1 gold piece and gives the bag of gold back to them. And when Muroto offers him a well-paying job, he turns it down even though he begs for food. Sun Tzu:
“In war, practice dissimulation, and you will succeed.”
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