Sanjuro

is a 1962 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. It is a sequel to Kurosawa's 1961 Yojimbo. Originally an adaptation of the Shūgorō Yamamoto novel Hibi Heian, the script was altered following the success of the previous year's Yojimbo to incorporate the lead character of that film. Plot Nine young samurai believe that the lord chamberlain, Mutsuta, is corrupt after he tore up their petition against fraud at court. One of them tells the superintendent Kikui of this and he agrees to intervene. As the nine meet secretly to discuss this at a shrine, a rōnin overhears and cautions them against trusting the superintendent. While at first they do not believe him, he saves them from an ambush. But as their rescuer is about to leave, he realises that Mutsuta and his family must now be in danger and decides to stay and help. By the time the samurai get to Mutsuta's house, the chamberlain has been abducted and his wife and daughter are held prisoner there. Following the rōnin's suggestion, a servant from the house gets the guards drunk, allowing the samurai to free the women. Then the group hide in a house next door to the superintendent's compound. When Mutsuta's wife asks the rōnin his name, he looks out of the window at the surrounding camellia trees and says it is , literally "thirty-year-old camellia". The lady then criticises "Sanjuro" for killing too frequently and insists that "the best sword is kept in its sheath."