Kurosawa's Censored Satori

This article will discuss the story of Sugata Sanshiro and how it provides some interesting perspectives on Japanese society and religion; in particular, it shows a satori or "sudden enlightenment experience" and how it affects Sanshiro life. The variations of the novels and films as they appeared in wartime and postwar also reveal that a number of phrases which may have spiritual overtones to some people and militaristic connotations to others have disappeared or have been replaced with more innocuous phrases.