Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple continues the story of Takezo, now known as Musashi Miyamoto, who has spent years travelling Japan and building a reputation as its finest swordsman. He returns to Kyoto, where Otsu has been waiting for him, but his purpose there is not to see her. He intends to challenge the head of the region's most respected fencing school, and he deliberately walks into the ambushes its followers set for him as a way of proving his courage and skill. The young fighter Sasaki Kojiro watches him with ambitions of his own.

Hiroshi Inagaki directed the film, the second entry in his trilogy following Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto from the previous year; among the features he made after it are Life of a Country Doctor and Chûshingura. Toshirō Mifune again plays Musashi, with Koji Tsuruta as Kojiro Sasaki, Kaoru Yachigusa as Otsu, Mariko Okada as Akemi, Michiyo Kogure as Lady Yoshino and Akihiko Hirata as Seijuro Yoshioka. The screenplay was written by Tokuhei Wakao and Inagaki, and Kazuo Takimura produced for TOHO.

Released in 1955 and running 103 minutes, the film is rated 7.3 out of 10 on IMDb from around 7,500 votes and 7.2 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 145 votes, suggesting a solid reputation among viewers, with the larger IMDb sample giving the steadier picture of that reception.