Sanjuro

Sanjuro is the titular protagonist of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo and its sequel Sanjuro. He is a wandering Ronin and a sword for hire who partakes in armed conflicts to benefit from all sides whenever there are turf wars. Though he mostly fights for himself, he occasionally becomes emotionally invested in his job to the point of performing heroic deeds out of the goodness of his heart. He is credited as one of the earliest examples of the wandering anti-hero archetype in cinema and he would go on to inspire countless protagonists, even in Western cinema.
He was portrayed by the legendary actor Toshiro Mifune.
== Biography ==
=== Yojimbo ===
In 1860, during the final years of the Edo period and the demise of the Tokugawa shogunate, Sanjuro walked the earth as a rōnin in search of opportunities to put his skills to good use as a mercenary. His travels take him across the countryside of Japan. In the midst of his journey he makes a stop at a farmhouse where he overhears an elderly couple lamenting the departure of their only son, who turned to a life of crime in a nearby town as a gambler and one of the members of a gang currently at war with a rival faction.
Sanjuro goes to the town, where he meets a gruff older man named Gonji, who owns a small establishment and allows him to stay on the condition that he skips town as soon as he can because of the dangers of the gang war. Sanjuro learns from Gonji that the current situation of the town is result of a dispute between two clans, one led by Seibei, a local brothel owner backed up by his ruthless wife and their brazen but incompetent son Yoichiro, and the other one by Ushitora, a former associate of Seibei who rose to become an even more vicious crime lord aided by his brothers Inomaru and Unosuke.
Sanjuro also learns about the benefactors behind each side of the war. While Seibei's influence extends to Tazaemon, a silk merchant who acts as the town's mayor, Ushitora has the local sake brewer Tokuemon under his payroll and uses him to counter Tazaemon's influence, having him play the role of mayor too.
Making a quick assessment of the situation, Sanjuro concludes that he can play both sides of the war and escalate their conflict to benefit from their clash until they destroy each other, ridding the town from their influence. He conducts his plan, first by approaching Seibei as he is the underdog in the war and in need of better swordsmen. In a great display of his skills, Sanjuro manages to swiftly dispatch three of Ushitora's men in front of both gangs, leaving Seibei impressed and willing to hire his service. 
During his meeting with Seibei, Sanjuro is asked his name for the first time. Having unnamed up until that point, he comes up with a new identity after seeing a mulberry field in the distance. From there on he assumes the name of Kuwabatake Sanjuro.
Sanjuro demands a large fee for his services and a payment in advance from Seibei, who agrees relunctantly seeing as the ronin would join the opposite side if turned down. With Sanjuro on his side, Seibei declares it's time for an all-out battle against Ushitora's band. In the meantime, Seibei's wife advises her husband and son to kill Sanjuro in order to avoid paying his expenses after the fight is won. Unbeknownst to them, Sanjuro anticipated their treachery and spied on them, setting the next step of his plan into motion.
When the battle is about to begin, Sanjuro returns Seibei his payment and defects from his side in front of his rivals and the townsfolk. Just as both sides are about to clash they are stopped by the sudden appearance of a bugyō (an Edo-period government official), making them retreat without casualties to keep up the illusion of peace.
The gang members cease their activities and try to appease the bugyō but their truce ends abruptly when he is called away due to hearing news of a fellow official who was murdered in another town. As Sanjuro soon learns, the assassination was orchestrated by Ushitora who sent two of his assassins to do the job and force the bugyō to leave the town.
Using this information to his advantage, Sanjuro kidnaps the two killers and sells them to Seibei before falsely reporting to Ushitora that it was Seibei's men who captured them, also earning a reward from Ushitora. In response, Ushitora sends his men to abduct Seibei's son Yoichiro and then proposes a trade-off between the prisoners of both sides. When the exchange takes place, Ushitora double crosses Seibei by having his  brother Unosuke, who has just arrived in town, shoot both of the assassins with a revolver he picked up during his travels. Seibei retaliates by revealing he kidnapped a woman who belongs to Ushitora. Both parties agree to another exchange the next day and the woman is swapped with Yoichiro.
Sanjuro discovers that the woman is named Nui and is the wife of a local farmer who had a gambling debt to Ushitora and was forced to give her away to pay off. Ushitora then forced her into sex slavery and whored her out to Tokuemon to keep him on his payroll. In a rare display of sympathy, Sanjuro shows concern for the woman's safety. In a bout of altruism he manipulates Ushitora into revealing Nui's hidden location and later sneaks in to kills the guards on the sly. Sanjuro makes sure the woman is reunited with her husband and son, urging them to flee the town instantly and wasting no time to hear their gratitude.
To keep up appearances and maintain his place in Ushitora's side, Sanjuro tries to pass off Nui's escape as a kidnapping conducted by Seibei's men. As a result the gang war erupts once again, now worse than ever. Ushitora's men take revenge by burning down Tazaemon's silk warehouse, while Seibei's group lays waste to Tokuemon's sake brewery. 
Some time passes and Unosuke grows suspicious of Sanjuro, not buying his act and explanation for Nui's escape. He takes his brother Inomaru along and goes to Gonji's place where Sanjuro is currently staying. Having been cornered for a while, Sanjuro keeps his cool and waves off Unosuke's accusation but he is ultimately exposed when Unosuke discovers a letter he had just received from Nui and her family thanking him for his help (something he clearly warned them not to do). Sanjuro is then beaten up mercilessly and imprisoned by Ushitora's thugs in a warehouse.
Severely bruised and still hurting from his wounds, Sanjuro still manages to overcome the odds by tricking his captors into thinking he got away while he was actually hidden in a box, escaping after all the thugs are gone. He goes back to Gonji, who tries to nurture him back to health while keeping him informed of the gang war with the help of the local gravedigger. The gravedigger lends them a coffin, which together they use to transport Sanjuro while he is still too weak to walk.
Regardless of Sanjuro's ruse, Ushitora is still set on eliminating Seibei and ending the war once and for all. While being carried to a safe place by Gonji and the gravedigger, Sanjuro silently watches as Ushitora's gang crushes Seibei's clan, brutally killing him along with his family. The gravedigger is forced to leave during the conmotion but after the carnage ends, Gonji lures the slow-minded Inomaru away from his gang and tricks him into helping him carry Sanjuro's coffin out of town without knowing he is inside.
Sanjuro is put to rest in a small temple near the graveyard until he can fully recuperate. Once he is done healing, he learns from the gravedigger that Gonji has been taken by Ushitora under suspicion of being an accomplice to Sanjuro on his schemes. Sanjuro rushes back to the town and faces off against Ushitora's whole gang. Though vastly outnumbered, Sanjuro singlehandedly defeats all of his attackers in what went on to become one of the most iconic one-man stands in all of film history, killing Ushitora, his men and even Unosuke by besting his revolver and disarming him with a precise knife throw.
He only spares a scared young man (the same who ran away from his parents at the beginning of the film) as he cowered during the fight, though he furiously scolds him for associating himself with the gang. As Unosuke lies on the ground, he begs Sanjuro to pass him his revolver, claiming to feel naked without his weapon. Despite the clear danger, Sanjuro complies, then watches as Unosuke manages to fire only one last shot before succumbing to his injuries.
In the wake of the massacre, Sanjuro watches as Tazaemon comes out of hiding and walks around in a samurai outfit, playing a drum. Tazaemon then spots a fleeing Tokuemon in the background and kills him, ending the gang war for good. 
With all the gangs and their grip on the town gone, Sanjuro releases Gonji, thanking him for his assistance and all the trouble he went through. He bids him farewell and then departs, leaving the town with a renewed spirit and having succeeded in his goals.
=== Sanjuro ===
...
== Personality ==
Sanjuro is a lonely wanderer out to make a profit and live a carefree life as best as he can. He enjoys good meals and drinking sake. Sanjuro resorts to using his sword skills and cunning in times of crisis to make a living, as he can play both sides of a turf war to his benefit and pick the one that is more to his liking to stick until the end. He can be quite a trickster, using deception and manipulation against many enemies to destroy them systematically.
Despite his way of life and questionable methods for a warrior, Sanjuro is a honorable man at heart, sympathetic to the struggles of others he deems in need of his help. He can put his life down the line for others and show great courage even vastly outnumbered. Although he is not entirely proud of his actions, Sanjuro sticks to the path he chose for himself, being a loner and a Ronin but still retaining some morals deep inside.
== Trivia ==
* Sanjuro is commonly believed to be the inspiration for The Man With No Name from the acclaimed Dollar trilogy of western films.
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