Rickshaw Man

Rickshaw Man (無法松の一生, Muhōmatsu no isshō, "The Life of Wild Matsu"), also released as Muhomatsu, the Rickshaw Man or The Rikisha-Man, is a 1958 color Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki.^[1] It is a remake of his own 1943 film. In the 1943 version Tsumasaburo Bando played the role of Muhōmatsu.^[2] In October 2020, a digitally re-mastered 83 minute long version of the original black-and-white film in 4K quality was released in Tokyo at the Tokyo International Film Festival,^[3] with a Blu-ray disc going on sale on 26 March 2021.

Rickshaw Man
Japanese movie poster
Directed by	Hiroshi Inagaki
Screenplay by	Hiroshi Inagaki Mansaku Itami
Story by	Shunsaku Iwashita
Produced by	Tomoyuki Tanaka
Starring	Toshiro Mifune Hideko Takamine
Cinematography	Kazuo Yamada
Edited by	Yoshitami Kuroiwa
Music by	Ikuma Dan
Release dates	22 April 1958 (1958-04-22) (Japan) 3 May 1960 (1960-05-03) (U.S.)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Set in Japan during the late 19th century up to the early 20th century, it tells the story of Matsugoro, a rickshaw man played by Toshiro Mifune, who becomes a surrogate father to the child of a recently widowed woman played by Hideko Takamine.^[4][5][6]

Cast

• Toshiro Mifune - Matsugoro (Muhōmatsu, "Wild Matsu")
• Hideko Takamine - Yoshiko Yoshioka
• Hiroshi Akutagawa - Capt. Kotaro Yoshioka
• Chishū Ryū - Shigezo Yuki
• Choko Iida - Otora (innkeeper)
• Haruo Tanaka - Kumakichi
• Jun Tatara - Theatre employee
• Kenji Kasahara - Toshio Yoshioka
• Kaoru Matsumoto - Young Toshio
• Nobuo Nakamura - Yoshiko's brother
• Ichirō Arishima - Medicine peddler
• Chieko Nakakita - Yoshiko's sister-in-law
• Seiji Miyaguchi - Fencing master
• Bokuzen Hidari

Awards

Director Hiroshi Inagaki won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1958.

Manga

A manga based on Rickshaw Man was published by Shueisha and serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Jump.