“Rashomon” (羅生門), Ultra‑Rare Original Japanese B2 Re‑Release Poster — 1962 Japanese Re‑Release — approx. 20.3 × 28.7 in (51.5 × 72.8 cm) P272
This is an original Japanese B2 poster printed for the film’s 1962 domestic re-release campaign.
About the film
Directed by Akira Kurosawa from stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, with screenplay by Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto, Rashomon stars Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Kichijiro Ueda, Fumiko Honma, and Daisuke Kato. Criterion describes it as a riveting psychological thriller in which four people give conflicting accounts of a man’s murder and the rape of his wife, while JFDB records its 88-minute running time and key staff including cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa.
The Film & Its Place in Kurosawa’s Legacy
Rashomon is the film that transformed the global standing of Japanese cinema. The National Film Archive of Japan says it put Kurosawa’s work, and Japanese cinema more broadly, on the international map; Criterion calls it an international sensation that revolutionized film language; and BFI describes it as “the film that brought Japanese cinema to the world.” Its awards remain central to that stature: the film won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1951, and the Academy’s Honorary Foreign Language Film Award the following year.
The 1962 Japanese re-release
By the time of this 1962 reissue, Rashomon had long since become a prestige title, and this poster makes that status explicit. The upper-left copy trumpets the picture as Japan’s first Venice / Academy-winning film, turning the re-release into a renewed celebration of international recognition. It is therefore not just a poster for a revival screening, but a period Japanese document of the film’s afterlife as a canonical national masterpiece.
Poster design
A superbly dramatic Japanese design centers on a vivid, colorized image of Mifune’s Tajomaru and Machiko Kyo in intense close contact, with the giant red title 羅生門 dominating the upper right. The composition is unusually direct and sensual for the film, trading the courtroom structure and fractured testimony for star presence, erotic tension, and raw physical danger. The result is a highly displayable country-of-origin design that feels at once classical, urgent, and unmistakably early-1960s in its reissue energy.
Why collectors prize this example
Collectors respond strongly to this poster because it combines several of the most desirable elements in vintage Japanese film paper: Kurosawa, Mifune, Machiko Kyo, a major Daiei title, and one of the definitive landmarks of world cinema. Just as importantly, this is original early re-release paper, not a later commemorative reproduction, and its bold, character-driven artwork gives it a distinct identity within the larger history of Rashomon poster design. The film’s canonical standing in both Japanese and international cinema only deepens that appeal.
Condition
Very Good to Excellent for its age. Previously folded and subsequently stored flat. Overall, this is a well-preserved survivor for a 1962 Japanese B2 re-release poster. Please review the supplied photographs carefully—shown is the exact poster offered.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
A rare opportunity to acquire an original 1962 Japanese re-release B2 poster for Rashomon—a striking, early revival sheet for the film that carried Kurosawa and Japanese cinema onto the world stage.
