And here is your daily almanac for Saturday the twenty-fourth of December 2022.

Today, in 1997, Toshiro Mifune, actor most known for his samurai roles, died.

Mifune stumbled into acting without ever meaning to. He was born in China to Japanese parents. He moved to Japan at age 21, but was immediately drafted into the war. After the war he found himself floating around like much of the country, out of work, hungry and without much hope. He decided to try to find work as a photographer and applied at a film studio for an assistant cameraman job. But when he arrived for the interview, he found to his confusion that rather than a job interview, it was an acting audition.

That's one way he told the story, anyway. A second version says that his friend secured him the audition with the suggestion that if he got hired as an actor he might be able to transfer to the photography department later. Whatever the case may be, despite having no acting experience the judges were impressed with him enough to give him the job.

And the rest, as we say, is history.

He went on to be the biggest Japanese star of his era, most known for the sixteen films he did with Akira Kurosawa. To the West he is most well known as a gruff samurai. His portrayal of samurai was completely counter to the clean-cut image of samurai that previously was the most common. Clint Eastwood would later draw inspiration from Mifune when he brought the same characteristics to the Western.

He later ended his partnership with Kurosawa and went his own way. From then on, Kurosawa would constantly made derisive comments about Mifune, but for his part Mifune always spoke respectfully of Kurosawa. Part of this later bitterness from Kurosawa may have been because Mifune continued to star in hit and hit, while Kurosawa's later films were hit or miss.

Here's some interesting trivia: George Lucas really wanted Mifune in Star Wars. He offered both the parts of Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Mifune turned him down, however, claiming that his English was not good enough to take on such a big role. It's hard to imagine anyone other than Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan and the towering David Prowse as Vader, but can you Mifune in either role? If nothing else, that sword duel between Vader and Obi-Wan likely would have been much better.

Later in his life he had many health problems and disappeared from public. His wife cared for him until she died. He died shortly after. He was 77.

Today is Senshō 先勝, one of the rokuyō, the Buddhist horoscope. Today you are said to have good luck in the morning but bad luck in the afternoon. It is thought to be a good day for beginnings. (Read more about the rokuyō here)

On the old calendar, today would have been the second day of the twelfth month. It is natsukarekusa shōzu (乃東生), the first microseason of Tōji.

This is when the Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) starts to sprout buds which has long given hope in the middle of winter that spring will come. This is also the time for blowfish, called fugu. It is usually safe, but there is a slight chance you will die from the poison, which I'm sure is one of the appeals of eating it. I posted a haiku from Bashō about this the other day along with some info.

This is also when the Tokyo area might typically get their first snowfall. The timing no longer works so well due to global warming, but then again, this year it may be close! We are predicted to get some snow this weekend here in Aichi Prefecture. It'll probably be a small fraction of the winter storm you folks in North America are getting, but it will still be pretty chilly!

This is also something of a date night in Japan. Most of Japan does in fact celebrate Christmas these days, but only insofar as Santa comes and brings presents to the kids. There is none of the Christian ideas making it feel like a sacred day, however, nor is it considered a special day for families to gather together. It has, however, also taken on a reputation as the most special date night of the year. I'm not sure where that idea came from. For single folks or ones long married, this night might instead involve buying Xmas Chicken. This tradition was started at KFC many years ago and they continue to probably be the most popular place to buy it although many places offer it now.

Here's a haiku from Buson about that first snowfall:

初雪や消ればぞ又草の露
hatsuyuki ya kiyureba zo mata kusa no tsuyu

first snow—
melts away and once more
dew on the grass
—Buson

This is a perfect image of the first snow. Usually the ground isn't cold enough for the snow to stick, so it melts to nothing within a day or two. These days in much of central and southern Japan snow won't stick very long, especially that first snow, but in his day it would have been more common.

The kigo (season word) here is hatsuyuki or "first snow". It is a kigo for mid-winter, which is right around now according to the traditional way of tracking the seasons.

^{"In the Snow, Nakayama-shichiri Road, Hida" Kawase Hasui}

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

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