Grass (?) in The Golden Age of Japanese Cinema

Hello! Alex Kerr, one of the greatest Western Japanologists (who wrote the books “Another Kyoto” and “The Lost Japan”, which I highly recommend for understanding the cultural context behind Kurosawa’s works), often points out that the famous cherry blossom and the lotus flower aren’t the most important in traditional Japanese arts. He says that grass and all kinds of short, wild greens have always held more significance for the minimalistic spirit of Japanese creators. Even though this is more true of ancient times, I find the same theme in cinema as well. The greatest duel in “Harakiri” (1962), with Tatsuya Nakadai as Hanshiro Tsugumo, is shot on windy hills filled with tall grass, which, during the fight, seems to be as much portrayed as the fighters themselves. Another notable depiction of this common plant is in “Onibaba” (1964), a horror film where the characters get lost in fields of extremely tall grasses. Finally, nature in general was always critical to Akira Kurosawa. I wonder – in which scenes of his films is grass the most significant? Since this peculiar topic has been on my mind for quite some time, I’d love to hear about other scenes or films where the plant is used in storytelling.

An interesting question, Mark. My first thought was the final duel in the first Sanshiro Sugata film, the windy grass there is amazingly cinematic and works to make the encounter truly epic.

I would say that Ran also uses grass to a great effect. It certainly has another very windy grass field, one that works as the setting where the central line “In a mad world, only the mad are sane” is delivered, a line that is probably Kurosawa’s most quoted, at least online. The surrounding nature in that turbulent scene so well reflects Hidetora’s inner state. Later on, the fool also creates a grass helmet for Hidetora. Throughout the film, their grass-surrounded exile works as quite a contrast to the stone castles and fortresses where much of the rest of the story takes place. And unless my memory fails me, Kurosawa even had parts of a grass field groomed and painted gold for a night shoot — for a scene that eventually didn’t make it to the film.

And isn’t it is also a grass hut that Dersu builds for Arsenyev and himself in Dersu Uzala, to save their lives during a huge blizzard?

I suppose, you could also call the setting of the final confrontation in Stray Dog something like a flowery grass field.

I don’t know how strictly Golden Age we are looking, but Double Suicide (1969) by Masahiro Shinoda has a final, titular scene in tall grass.

From memory, Woman in the Dunes also makes good use of dune grass. I think you are quite right that it is a feature of films of that period. I’d have to remind myself by rewatching some, but I think key Mizoguchi films and a number of horror films from the 1960’s also use the motif of a camera moving through long grass very effectively.

Samurai Spy by Shinoda also has a few major fight scenes in grass, if I remember correctly. I do think that Ran has the most significant usage of grass. The first section also takes place in seemingly endless fields of grass.