170 minutes
3/1/1969
Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son. He pledges them his life. He then spends years using treachery, poetic sensibility, military and political strategy to expand Takeda's realm, advance the claim of Yu's son as the heir, and prepare for an ultimate battle with the forces of Echigo. Has Kansuke overreached? Are his dreams, blinded by love, too big?
Toshirō Mifune
as Kansuke Yamamoto
Yoshiko Sakuma
as Princess Yufu
Kinnosuke Nakamura
as Shingen Takeda
Yūjirō Ishihara
as Kenshin Uesugi
Katsuo Nakamura
as Nobusato Itagaki
Umenosuke Nakamura
as Hagiwara Yaemon
Masakazu Tamura
as Nobushige Takeda
Nakamura Kanzaburo
as Takeda Katsuyori
Ken Ogata
as Hatanaka Buhei
Mayumi Ozora
as Princess Okoto
Masumi Harukawa
as Buhei's wife
Haruko Tōgō
Keiko Sawai
Yoshiko Kuga
Akihiko Hirata
as Suwa Yorishige
Yoshio Tsuchiya
Akira Kubo
Ichirō Nakatani
Sachio Sakai
Nakajirō Tomita
as Takada Noriyori
Tetsurō Sagawa
Jun'ichirō Mukai
Kitijiro Murata
as Toda Awaji
Ryunosuke Yamazaki
Ryōsuke Kagawa
as Nagasaka Yorihiro
Masao Shimizu
Jotaro Togami
as Murakami Yoshikiyo
Kōji Nanbara
Takashi Shimura
as Obu Toramasa
Ryūnosuke Tsukigata
as Kasahara Kiyoshige
Kan'emon Nakamura
as Nobukato Itagaki