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• The film used approximately 1400 extras (1400 suits of armor were fabricated, designed by Akira Kurosawa) and 200 horses. A number of the horses had to be imported from the United States. Kurosawa used the extras and horses so efficiently that when the film was ready for premiere, newspapers in Japan were reporting that thousands of extras and horses were used to stage the battles.
• Akira Kurosawa's wife of 39 years, Yôko Yaguchi, died during the production of this film. Kurosawa halted filming for just one day to mourn before resuming work on the picture.
• Because actor Tatsuya Nakadai was decades younger than Hidetora, he wore full-face makeup that took about four hours to apply.
• Akira Kurosawa began writing the film 10 years before its release and said that it wasn't originally meant to be based on "King Lear", but came to that during the writing process.