Seiji Hoshikawa

Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman returning home with her baby. When gangsters mistake her for Zatoichi and kill her, Zatoichi determines to escort the baby to its father. He gains the reluctant help of a young pick pocket and together they travel to find the baby's father... (imdb)

Blind swordsman/masseur Ichi (known as Zatoichi, or "Masseur Ichi") angers a local yakuza gang when he defeats several of them in a wrestling match. When he finds that his long lost love Tane is nearby and romantically involved with a tough samurai in the employ of the gang, he remains in the village... (imdb)

A serious young student at a popular dojo is pressured into taking the blame for a treacherous murder in order to save the family of his lovely and devoted fiancé. The real world, which exists outside of the stuffy and hypocritical confines of samurai society, pounds (but does not flatten) the once-idealistic man with unforgettable and incredible bad luck. He endures a number of trials, only to return and discover how dishonorable his elite comrades truly are. (imdb)

A teenage couple turn to a life of crime and sexual experimentation.

Hanpei, son of the only servant of a concubin who has turned mad, rumored to have been fathered by a dog, is rejected by his fellow samurais. He becomes a great gardener. But the local lord, son of the mad concubin of the beginning, turns out to be mad as well. Hanpei can run quicker than a horse, and is a natural born swordsman. These talents allow him to be a professionnal killer. Now Hanpei has a place. But the one that follows the path of the sword will have to pay a price. (thelostforum.net)

Nemuri Kyoshiro, a youthful and cynical ronin with unparalleled skill, is approached by both sides in a game of corruption, ambition, and double crosses. The leader of the Kaga clan, who thinks he has killed his smuggling partner, fears that the shogunate will discover his illegal activities. He learns of evidence that will prove his guilt. Meanwhile, his partner is not dead, and, assisted by a master of Shorenji boxing, is looking for revenge and for his loot.... (imdb)

When the Shogun's elderly Finance Minister cuts off the allowance of one of the Shogun's widowed daughters to help avert a financial crisis, she responds by sending assassins after him. Kyoshiro befriends the old man and defends him, earning himself the enmity of the vengeful princess as well.

Kyoshiro demonstrates his skill by slicing the clothes from the body of a female opponent, and gets involved in a plot that could spell his doom! (imdb)

In SWORD OF FIRE, Nemuri is hired to kill an innocent girl who is hiding out as a washerwoman in a small town. Realizing that she has done nothing wrong, Nemuri concocts a plan to mete out justice to those who want her dead.

When the lord of clan has a son, the son will take his father's place. However, as the child gets older, the clan lord realizes that he is not the father of the child, and decides to have him murdered. Saved by a servant, the son is put into hiding and believed to be dead. So when his father dies, the son decides to claim what is rightfully his, namely, the leadership of the clan. The clan, however, has different ideas, so the young man decides to let his sword reason with his would be usurpers.

After being humiliated by Kyoshiro, the Princess Kiku is out for revenge. But the only thing her private Ninja army gets is the Full Moon Cut. In desperation she kidnaps an orphan girl that Kyoshiro has befriended, and holds her hostage hoping to ambush the heroic Kyoshiro.

A peasant ascends to the nobility, only to be destroyed in the process. (Criterion)

This early Kenji Misumi picture recounts the story of a band of samurai loyal to the Shogunate, the Shinsengumi, saving Kyoto from a conspiracy of Imperialists. (imdb)

Nemuri arrives at a small village, a fight is posed then postponed, there's a place called the Devil's Fortress and people are being kept locked there and tortured by the villainy occupants, then at some point the villainy occupants are introduced to us by name and a shadowy connection to the Shogun is implied. (imdb)

When a man (Nakatani) is brought into the hospital fatally wounded after being hit by a car, Amamiya initially refuses to operate, seeing the case as hopeless. But after he sees the victim, whose given name is Sai, and recognises him as a private who fought under him under the Japanese name of Shibata in Okinawa during the war, he has a change of heart. (midnighteye.com)

A wandering yakuza in search for the man responsible for slicing up his father and an amateur samurai searching for the whereabouts of his own father are thrown together on the outskirts of a mob infested seaside village. (imdb)