“Red Beard” (赤ひげ / Akahige), Original Re-Release Japanese Movie Poster 1969, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) ZA1275

An original Japanese B2 theatrical poster for Toho’s 1969 re-release of Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard. The film first opened in Japan in April 1965 and marked the sixteenth and final collaboration between Kurosawa and Toshirō Mifune. Beside the red title, the small vertical inscription 「ニュー・プリント」 (“new print”) advertises the fresh film print prepared for the revival.

In Excellent condition, with the vermilion brush lettering and blue director’s credit standing out clearly against the cream ground.

Film background

Adapted from Shūgorō Yamamoto’s Akahige Shinryōtan, the film follows Noboru Yasumoto (Yūzō Kayama), a young doctor who returns from studying medicine in Nagasaki expecting a post with the shogunate. Instead, he finds himself at the Koishikawa clinic for the poor in Edo, under the stern Dr Kyojō Niide (Mifune), known as Red Beard. When Niide entrusts him with the care of Otoyo, a young girl rescued from a brothel, Yasumoto must first earn enough of her trust for her to accept his help. Mifune won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1965 Venice Film Festival for the role.

Poster design

Mifune looks directly out from the right half of the sheet, his reddish-brown beard picked out in colour for the poster of Kurosawa’s black-and-white film. Kayama looks up from the opposite corner. Between the two doctors, the timber gate of the Koishikawa clinic divides the smaller scenes, from a woman gripping a hairpin beneath the tiled roof to Red Beard throwing an attacker at lower right.

The title 「赤ひげ」 (“Red Beard”) runs down the left in broad red strokes, with individual brush marks visible at their tips. Beside it, blue lettering reads 「黒沢明監督作品」 (“A film directed by Akira Kurosawa”). A fine border of musical notation runs along the margins, with Toho’s blue circular emblem at the upper right.

Condition

Excellent overall. Faint horizontal handling lines and scattered age spotting are visible, particularly in the pale margins and on the reverse. The reverse also bears a small ink stamp near the upper right and a few rectangular marks along the edges. Please review the front and reverse photographs for the full condition.

An original vintage Japanese theatrical poster from Toho’s 1969 re-release.
Over 55 years old.
Certificate of Authenticity included.