{{Infobox film | name = Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island | image = Samurai III Duel at Ganryu Island poster.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Hiroshi Inagaki | producer = Kazuo Takimura | writer = Hideji Hojo (play)<br />Hiroshi Inagaki<br />Tokuhei Wakao<br />Eiji Yoshikawa (novel) | starring = Toshiro Mifune<br />Kōji Tsuruta | music = Ikuma Dan | cinematography = | editing = | studio = Toho Studios | distributor = Toho Studios | released = {{Film date|1956|1|3|ref1=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1956/cf000070.htm |title=決闘巌流島 |publisher=Jmdb.ne.jp |date=2001-01-31 |accessdate=2021-06-06}}</ref>}} | runtime = 105 minutes | country = Japan | language = Japanese | budget = }} {{nihongo|'''''Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island'''''|宮本武蔵完結編 決闘巌流島|Miyamoto Musashi Kanketsuhen: Kettō Ganryūjima|lead=yes}} is a 1956 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshirō Mifune. Shot in Eastmancolor, it is the third and final film of Inagaki's ''Samurai Trilogy''.
The film is adapted from Eiji Yoshikawa's novel ''Musashi'', originally released as a serial in the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'', between 1935 and 1939. The novel is loosely based on the life of the famous Japanese swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi. The preceding two parts of the trilogy are ''Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto'' (1954) and ''Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple'' (1955).
==Plot== Miyamoto abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by the Shogun, Japan's de facto leader. He is also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Miyamoto agrees to fight Sasaki in a year's time but rejects the Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Miyamoto assists the villagers against a band of brigands.
In the large city of Edo in Japan, Sasaki kills multiple men in a battle in the street.<ref name="Hill2007">{{cite web|title=Appreciation: Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island | date=17 February 2007 | work=The House Next Door | publisher=Slant Magazine | access-date=6 July 2015 | author1=Hill, J. | author2=Wagstaff | url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/appreciation-samurai-3-duel-at-ganryu-island-1956}}</ref> The commotion resulting from the battle in the street garners the attention of Miyamoto who is nearby in the city.<ref name="Hill2007" /> Miyamoto leaves his room to see what has occurred and notices the dead men in the street as well as a note from Sasaki claiming responsibility for the killing.<ref name="Hill2007" />
Sasaki and Miyamoto eventually meet one another and agree to a fight.<ref name="Hill2007" /> However, on the day the fight is planned, Miyamoto decides to delay the fight for a year.<ref name="Hill2007" /> During this year before the fight, Sasaki becomes acquainted with the upper class, while Miyamoto begins farming near a small village.<ref name="Hill2007" /> Miyamoto seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest. Sasaki also travels to Ganryu Island for their fight.<ref name="Hill2007" />
Miyamoto has strategically timed the duel to coincide with the breaking dawn and lures Sasaki to the water's edge. When the sun rises above the horizon behind Miyamoto, the light begins to blind Sasaki. In a single stroke, he kills Sasaki and is victorious.<ref name="Hill2007" /> While the onlookers celebrate the win, Miyamoto forlornly looks down upon Sasaki, calling him "the greatest swordsman" he will ever encounter and silently mourns for him.
==Production== The film ''Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island'', made in 1956, came after the end of the Allied occupation of Japan following World War II.<ref name="Sharp2014">{{cite web | author=Sharp, J. | title=10 Great Summer Samurai Films | publisher=BFI Film Forever | date=25 June 2014 | access-date=15 July 2015 | url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-samurai-films}}</ref> "The Allied occupation initially restricted films promoting feudal values, putting the kibosh on this most Japanese of action genres".<ref name="Sharp2014" />
This attitude relaxed somewhat in 1949, as the Occupation became more concerned with the threat of international communism and less with jidaigeki and chanbara. Inagaki himself had directed ''Kanketsu Sasaki Kojirô: Ganryû-jima kettô'', an earlier black and white film about Sasaki that climaxes with the fatal duel between Miyamoto and Sasaki, in 1951. That film also featured Mifune in a brief appearance as Miyamoto that nonetheless won him a share of top billing, but starred Tomoemon Otani, a Kabuki actor who specialized in women's roles on stage, as Sasaki.<ref name="Kojiro Sasaki">{{cite web |title=Kojiro Sasaki / Sohen Sasaki Kojiro (1950 -51) |url=https://japanonfilm.wordpress.com/2018/10/10/kojiro-sasaki-sohen-sasaki-kojiro-1950-51/ |website=JAPANONFILM |date=11 October 2018 |access-date=August 19, 2022}}</ref>
After the Allies left Japan in 1952, "the way was clear for the golden age of the samurai film", allowing Inagaki to specialize in the genre he had been most closely associated with before the war.<ref name="Sharp2014" /> World War II, the Allied occupation of Japan and then the Allies leaving certainly influenced Japanese film.<ref name="Sharp2014" /> Additionally, the film's character Musashi Miyamoto was an actual person who lived from 1584-1645 and was "famed for his two-handed fighting technique and his delicate touch with the Zen ink brush".<ref name="Sharp2014" /> The film also relates to Miyamoto’s actual battle with Sasaki, which took place on April 13, 1612 on Ganryu Island, located off the coast of the Bizen Province.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=William Scott|title=The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi|date=2004|publisher=Kodansha International|location=Tokyo|isbn=978-4770029423|page=19|edition=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0p0C7Y8lkH8C&q=musashi+came+late+and+unkempt&pg=PA18}}</ref>
== Cast == * Toshirō Mifune as Miyamoto Musashi * Kōji Tsuruta as Sasaki Kojirō * Kaoru Yachigusa as Otsu * Michiko Saga as Omitsu * Mariko Okada as Akemi * Takashi Shimura as Sado Nagaoka, the court official * Minoru Chiaki as Sasuke, the boatman * Takamaru Sasaki as Omitsu's father * Daisuke Katō as Toji Gion * Haruo Tanaka as Kumagoro, the horse thief * Kichijiro Ueda as Priest Ogon * Kokuten Kodo as Old Priest Nikkan * Ikio Sawamura as Innkeeper * Kenjin Iida as Jotaro
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|0049710}} * [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/24-samurai-iii ''Samurai III''] an essay by Bruce Eder at the Criterion Collection
{{Hiroshi Inagaki}} {{Samurai Trilogy}}
Category:1956 films Category:1950s martial arts films Category:Films about duels Category:Films directed by Hiroshi Inagaki Category:Jidaigeki films Category:1950s samurai films Category:Cultural depictions of Miyamoto Musashi Category:1956 Japanese films Category:Films scored by Ikuma Dan