This is an original Japanese poster printed in 1961 for the first release of Yojimbo.
This poster is extremely rare, it is in a Nakazuri format (B3 37 x 51 cm) and was intended to promote the film on the JR train in Tokyo in 1961.
The thing that makes this poster all the more special is the tie-up advertising with a very famous Japanese coffee company.
This poster is rarer by a "magnitude of ten" compared to the B2 first release.
When a mysterious samurai (Toshiro Mifune) arrives in a small town, he finds the populace terrorized by warring gangs. Formulating a plan to set the gangs against one another, and thus save the town, the nameless samurai hires himself out to first one side, and then the other as a yojimbo (bodyguard). The story, which is based on Dashiell Hammett's detective novel, Red Harvest, was lifted virtually intact and remade as A Fistful of Dollars (1964), the first in director Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy. In fact, director Akira Kurosawa successfully sued Leone for copyright infringement, and was awarded 15% of the Spaghetti Western's worldwide gross. (Source: HA)
This poster is in very good condition. Please refer to the imagery as this is the exact poster that is for sale
It is 60 years old!
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.