Is the beard on Toshiro Mifune's samurai characters an exception?
I'm not sure whether historically samurai — members of the Japanese warrior caste — were supposed to always be clean-shaven or not. But I seem to recall that samurai characters in film are mostly beardless.
How exceptional is it for samurai characters in Japanese Jidaigeki films (period dramas) to have beards? And is it typically some particular type of samurai characters to have them (e.g. evil vs good, old vs young, sophisticated vs plain)?
Best Answer
Here's a good article on the topic. Most samurai were supposed to actually let their facial hair grow to show their "fighting spirit". Those with poor facial hair even got fake facial hair to avoid being mocked. Their lack of beard depiction in films is probably more because of modern Japanese ideas on beards
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