A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
Toshirō Mifune
Tatsuya Nakadai
Yōko Tsukasa
Isuzu Yamada
Daisuke Katō
Seizaburō Kawazu
Takashi Shimura
Hiroshi Tachikawa
Yōsuke Natsuki
Eijirō Tōno
Kamatari Fujiwara
Ikio Sawamura
Atsushi Watanabe
Susumu Fujita
Kyū Sazanka
Kō Nishimura
Takeshi Katō
Ichirō Nakatani
Sachio Sakai
Akira Tani
Namigoro Rashomon
Yoshio Tsuchiya
Gen Shimizu
Jerry Fujio
Yutaka Sada
Shin Ōtomo
Shōichi Hirose
Hideyo Amamoto
Shōji Ōki
Fuminori Ōhashi
Hiroshi Kiyama
Senkichi Ōmura
Noriko Honma
Ryusuke Nishio
Naoya Kusakawa
Nadao Kirino
Mitsuo Tsuda
Shinpei Takagi
Jun Ōtomo
Akio Kusama
Yasuzō Ogawa
Hiroshi Takagi
Jun'ichirō Mukai
Takuzō Kumagai
Ichirō Chiba
Haruya Sakamoto
Rinsaku Ogata
Takeo Ogushi
Yoko Terui
Hiromi Mineoka
Michiko Kawa