During the six-week scriptwriting process, Kurosawa and his screenwriters realized that "six sober samurai were a bore—they needed a character that was more off-the-wall".
Dalam proses penulisan naskah yang berlangsung selama enam minggu, Kurosawa dan para penulis naskahnya menyadari bahwa "enam samurai yang sederhana itu membosankan—mereka membutuhkan seorang tokoh yang lebih di-luar-batas."