Mifune Quotes

A chance to try your technique is in one instant never to be regained, so try it without hesitation. ~ Kyuzo Mifune

I find it fascinating how we can see something with our eyes, hear with our ears and speak from our mouths. Although science tells us how they work, I just really can't grasp it. I don't know how everyday items like phones work. I can't even explain why a bicycle is fast. When I think like this, I wonder how many things I really understand. Yet I can live on. Because all these mysteries have joined together to keep me alive. Sometimes I admire that before I go to bed. ~ Mifune Ryouko

To master an actual technique, mental culture should come first.
Acquiring a technique requires a careful, modest, non-mean, free and attentive mind. In other words a player should do his utmost and nothing less. ~ Kyuzo Mifune

There are no shortcuts because there is no end ~ Kyuzo Mifune

Do not place hope in finding a secret technique. Polish the mind through ceaseless training; that is the key to effective techniques. ~ Kyuzo Mifune

The mind, if slackened even a little, will cause defeat, the same as fearing the opponent will make you unable to use full strength. ~ Kyuzo Mifune

Mifune had a kind of talent I had never encountered before in the Japanese film world. It was, above all, the speed with which he expressed himself that was astounding. The ordinary Japanese actor might need ten feet of film to get across an impression; Mifune needed only three feet. The speed of his movements was such that he said in a single action what took ordinary actors three separate movements to express. He put forth everything directly and boldly, and his sense of timing was the keenest I had ever seen in a Japanese actor. And yet with all his quickness he also had surprisingly fine sensibilities. ~ Akira Kurosawa