Seven Samurai & Musashi

[Aaron Gerow]

In relation to this, the head of NHK half apologized for the fact the 
first episode of the NHK TV drama Musashi had a striking similarity to 
Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. Several weekly tabloids pointed this out 
and the NHK chief was forced to comment. He defended the episode as an 
expression of honor and respect for Kurosawa on the part of the series 
producers, but apologized for not talking with Toho and those related to 
The Seven Samurai before the episode was aired.

I did not see the episode, but it seems the similarity has less to do 
with the influence of Yoshikawa on Kurosawa than the influence of 
Kurosawa on those adapting Musashi for TV.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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