Hoshino Resorts
KAI Sengokuhara
Sengokuhara, Hakone
A 16-room hot-spring ryokan at Sengokuhara in Hakone, the plateau where the film’s back-hill scene was shot. Its page gives no price. Pictured: Sengokuhara, 2016.
See the ryokan
Toho · 1954 · a village made of five places
Seven Samurai
Toho looked for about 40 days and found no village, so it built one from several places. Above: Tanna Basin, where the opening shot looked down on it.
Sources
The plan
Flood the plots
The village was never one place. These five plots are its centre, its slopes and its hill, named as the sources give them. Flood a plot and the real place appears.
Sources
0 of 5 plots flooded
Five plots lie dry. Flood one to see where that part of the village was shot.
Plot directions
Five dry plots.
Each one is a different real place.
Sources
The snow
Three days with hoses
About 30 cm of snow fell on 24 January 1954, and staff spent three days melting it with hoses before the battle was shot at the open set in February.
Only three interiors were built inside the studio: the inn, the water-mill hut and Rikichi’s house. Everything else was shot outdoors. The wealthy farmer’s house and the bandit fort stood on a Toho open set, and the town with its inn, octagonal hall and teahouse on the studio’s farm open set.
The shoot totalled 148 working days and used 130,000 feet of film. The final budget was ¥210 million, which made it the most expensive Japanese feature at the time.
Production was suspended in September 1953 for lack of money and resumed on 3 October.
A working studio behind gates; the street front can be seen from outside. No tour is offered on the pages read.
Sources
Go and find the plots
Five places, one village
Toho Studios is behind gates and the Ōkura paddies are now housing. The rest are public ground: a basin in Kannami, a district of Izu, a plateau in Hakone, a waterfall and a road. Gotemba is named only by district, so it is not pinned.
Sources
Where it is now
7 places you can find on a map in Tokyo, Shizuoka and Hakone; one more is named by district only.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working studio behind gates; the street front can be seen from outside. No tour is offered on the pages read.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Now housing. The Sengawa and its bridges are public streets; the pin is a junction named for the housing complex that replaced the paddies.
Toho Studios, Seijo, Setagaya, 2023 Akonnchiroll · CC BY-SA 4.0 Setagaya, Tokyo · Seijo, Setagaya, Tokyo
Toho Studios
Many shoots took place at or near Toho Studios, including most indoor scenes and the village centre, which was on the edge of a set in Setagaya Ward.
A working studio behind gates; the street front can be seen from outside. No tour is offered on the pages read.
Sources
The Sengawa at Ōkura, Setagaya, 2023 鋸香具師 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Setagaya, Tokyo · Beside the Sengawa, in front of Toho Studios, Ōkura, Setagaya
The paddies at Ōkura
The centre of the village was rice paddies beside the Sengawa in front of Toho Studios. The site later became a housing complex at Ōkura in Setagaya.
Now housing. The Sengawa and its bridges are public streets; the pin is a junction named for the housing complex that replaced the paddies.
Sources
Stay
A ryokan on the plateau.
A hot-spring inn at Sengokuhara, where the back-hill scene was shot.
Go there
Find a route.
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Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The archive
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
8 of 8 places · 9 of 9 stories
Toho Studios
Seijo, Setagaya, Tokyo
Melting the snow
About 30 cm of snow fell on 24 January 1954, and staff spent three days melting it with hoses before the battle was shot at the open set in February.
The paddies at Ōkura
Beside the Sengawa, in front of Toho Studios, Ōkura, Setagaya
The village centre
The village centre is built on rice paddies beside the Sengawa, in front of the studio.
Tanna Basin
Shimo-Tanna, Kannami, Shizuoka
The opening shot
Bandits look down on the village from directly above the Tanna Tunnel; utility poles are moved for the shot.
No single village
About 40 days of scouting from Fukushima to Gifu find no suitable village, so one is assembled from several places.
Horikiri
Horikiri, Izu city, Shizuoka
The mill hut burns twice
The first mill hut is burned, Kurosawa rejects the burn, and it is rebuilt before a typhoon threatens it.
Gotemba
Yōzōmi and Ni-no-oka, Gotemba, Shizuoka
North and west of the village
The north and west of the village are shot at Yōzōmi and Ni-no-oka in Gotemba.
Senguhara
Senguhara, Hakone, Kanagawa, near Nagao Pass
The back hill
The hillside meeting of Katsushirō and Shino is shot at Senguhara, with gathered chrysanthemums and mirrored sunlight.
Ayutsubo Falls
Ayutsubo Falls, Shizuoka
The sweetfish
Mifune catches a sweetfish at Ayutsubo Falls.
Kuchino and Chinba
Kuchino, Numazu, and Chinba, Izunokuni, Shizuoka
The road to the fort
The road to the bandit fort is shot at Chinba and Kuchino; the fort is on the Toho open set.
