Toshirô Mifune in Stray Dog (1949)
Vitals
Toshirô Mifune as Murakami, homicide detective
Tokyo, Summer 1949
Film: Stray Dog
(Japanese title: 野良犬, Nora inu)
Release Date: October 17, 1949
Director: Akira Kurosawa
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Considered one of the greatest actors of all time, Toshirô Mifune was born 105 years ago today, on April 1, 1920. Before his Hollywood debut in Grand Prix (1966), Mifune starred in sixteen films directed by Akira Kurosawa. Their third collaboration was the 1949 drama Stray Dog, a film that blends elements of film noir with themes of disillusionment in postwar Japan and is now regarded as an early example of the police procedural.
The story begins on “an unbearably hot day” in Tokyo, where Mifune’s newly promoted homicide detective Murakami reports the theft of his sidearm. After recounting the incident—including his failed pursuit of the pickpocket—Murakami partners with veteran detective Satō (Takashi Shimura) to track the weapon into the depths of Tokyo’s underworld. Their investigation leads to a desperate small-time crook named Yusa (Isao Kimura), whose escalating crime spree weighs heavily on Murakami, forcing him to confront difficult questions about guilt, duty, and justice.
What’d He Wear?
Murakami’s sense of discipline and past Army service informs the character’s fondness for continuing to dress in a uniform of sorts, always wearing the same light-colored summer suit, white shirt, and patterned tie—unless he’s in disguise.
The way that Murakami’s suit hangs and wrinkles suggests that it may be linen, a smart fabric to beat the heat of a Tokyo summer. Murakami isn’t the only character dressed accordingly, as a nervous bellboy describes Yusa to him as wearing “a white linen suit” upon their last meeting. The exact color of Murakami’s suiting is lost to history, though it may be an off-white shade of cream or beige, though pale-blue and pale-gray are also possible.
Murakami’s tailoring follows the classic 1940s silhouette with a full-fitting, wide-shouldered jacket and pleated trousers that rise just high enough to meet the jacket’s buttoning point over Toshirô Mifune’s waist.
The single-breasted jacket is heavily padded through the shoulders, establishing the profile for the rest of the suit as the ventless jacket then hangs freely from Mifune’s frame with a full, loose fit that nods to era fashions while also accommodating the sidearm he begins holstering on the right side of his belt… after keeping it in his side pocket clearly attracted a pickpocket.
The notch lapels taper to Mifune’s waist, where the top of the two pearl-white 4-hole buttons fastens over the top of his trousers, matching the three buttons on each cuff. The breast pocket and hip pockets are open-top patch pockets, reinforcing why it was such an amateur move for Murakami to keep his pistol so clearly exposed in the right-hand pocket without even a flap to cover it. (The pens he clips into the breast pocket are presumably safer—and lower stakes—from pickpockets.)
The matching suit trousers have a long rise to Mifune’s natural waist, with double sets of shallow reverse-facing pleats on each side of the fly. The trousers have on-seam side pockets and a jetted back pocket positioned high on the right side of the seat. Though rigged with belt loops around the waist, the trousers also have a short split “fishtail” back with suspender buttons, should the wearer choose to wear them with braces. However, Murakami opts for a brown leather belt that closes through a single-prong buckle.
The turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms of Murakami’s trousers break cleanly just over the tops of his white leather cap-toe oxford shoes, which manage to stay pristine despite his wearing them for days on end through the back streets of Tokyo. Of all his main clothing, only Murakami’s socks vary from day to day, as he cycles through light, medium, and dark-colored hosiery.
Murakami wears a plain white cotton shirt with a semi-spread collar, plain button-up front, breast pocket, and button cuffs. His tie is mini-checked in white and a darker color, diagonally overlaid with dark “uphill”-directional bar stripes.
Initially, Murakami wears a white straw Panama hat with a black grosgrain band, knotted in a bow over the left side, and shaped like a fedora with its pinched crown and snap brim. The hat falls off his head after he leaps from the bus to chase the pickpocket who swipes his Colt… adding to the list of items he lost that fateful day.
After losing his Panama hat, Murakami transitions to wearing a white cotton flat cap that’s just as appropriate with his summer suit and shoes as his previous headgear. The lightweight and light-colored cotton cloth wears cooler than heavier wool or tweed flat caps.
Murakami’s wristwatch echoes those also worn by many other characters from Satō to Yusa. The watch has a light-colored rectangular dial that fills the shape of its rectangular case, attached to an expanding band around Murakami’s left wrist.
Following a tip from the pickpocket’s accomplice Ogin advising him to “wander the alleys downtown looking desperate” to attract gun dealers, Murakami disguises himself from head to toe in dirty work clothes. After several days undercover, he changes back into his suit, tie, and flat cap.
The Guns
Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket
Murakami confirms that his stolen pistol was a Colt, loaded with all seven rounds, described in dialogue as “a compact Colt revolver, pinched right after firing practice.” The description aligns with the blued steel Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket semi-automatic pistol that we prominently see Murakami shooting at the range. (“Revolver” may be a translation error in the version that I watched, but it was also common—if erroneous—practice for the terms “pistol” and “revolver” to be used interchangeably to describe any handgun up through the 20th century.)
John M. Browning designed the Model 1908 Vest Pocket for Colt as an American-made companion to the similarly diminutive FN Model 1906 he designed for Fabrique Nationale de Herstal of Belgium. The Model 1908 Vest Pocket takes six-round magazines, with an additional round in the chamber bringing the potential total to seven as Murakami reports. Like its FN predecessor, the Colt was chambered for the anemic .25 ACP (6.35x16mmSR)—Browning’s now all-but-obsolete round associated with the inadequate stopping power of “mouse guns”, though it was once common ammunition for compact handguns to the extent that Ian Fleming armed the literary James Bond with a .25-caliber Beretta before he famously upgraded to the .32-caliber Walther PPK.
Though Colt internally referred to the pistol as the “Model N”, it was marketed with the “Vest Pocket” appellation that communicated the 13-ounce pistol’s easily concealed size of 4.5 inches long, with a two-inch barrel. The Model 1908 Vest Pocket resembled a downscaled alternative to the higher-caliber Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol, retaining the same single-action trigger, slide-locking safety catch, and grip safety. More than 420,000 Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket pistols were manufactured throughout its production timeline that lasted from 1908 (go figure) through the late 1940s.
Type 94 Nambu Pistol
As Murakami’s investigation intensifies, his superiors evidently begin trusting him with another pistol, though he smartly keeps this one in a flapped leather holster on his belt rather than loosely carried in his jacket pocket. Satō requests it before the final act, at which point Murakami draws and hands over what looks like a Type 94 Nambu semi-automatic pistol.
Only briefly seen, the silhouette of Murakami’s pistol could be a Type 94 Nambu—or perhaps a sleeker pistol like an FN Model 1910/22 or Remington Model 51. However, the context and promotional photography reflect that he’s likely meant to be carrying the Type 94 here.
Unlike the American-made Colt, the Type 94 Nambu was produced in Japan, where it had been designed by Nambu Rifle Manufacturing Company founder Kijiro Nambu. After years in design, the Type 94 was officially adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in late 1934 and entered production the following year. Approximately 71,000 Type 94 pistols would be produced across the following decade, through the end of World War II. Already famously featuring safety issues due to a breech design flaw that could cause an unintentional discharge, Type 94 pistols made by 1945 declined in quality due to cruder production guidelines late in the war.
The recoil-operated design featured a concealed hammer, rather than the striker-fired designs of previous Nambu pistols. However, it continued to use the 8x22mm Nambu ammunition that was introduced at the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, fed from six-round magazines.
Murakami’s pistol can be more clearly identified as a Type 94 Nambu in Stray Dog‘s promotional photography.
How to Get the Look
Toshirô Mifune, Keiko Awaji, and Takashi Shimura in Stray Dog (1949)
Though detective Murakami’s summer suit gets increasingly rumpled with his journey through Tokyo’s underworld, he dresses smartly for the “unbearably hot day” in his lightweight summer suit with a coordinated flat cap, white oxfords, and patterned tie.
- Off-white linen suit:
- Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, padded shoulders, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
- Double reverse-pleated high-rise trousers with belt loops, on-seam side pockets, jetted back-right pocket, and turn-ups/cuffs
- White cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, plain button-up front, breast pocket, and button cuffs
- Mini-checked with with dark “uphill”-directional bar stripes
- Brown leather belt with single-prong buckle
- White leather cap-toe oxford shoes
- White cotton flat cap
- Rectangular wristwatch with light-colored rectangular dial on metal expansion band
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
Footnote
Murakami and Satō follow a crook named Honda (Reizaburô Yamamoto) to a baseball game, where he is interestingly dressed in a white double-breasted jacket with dark stripes—almost identical to the jacket that Toshirô Mifune had worn in Drunken Angel (1948), his first collaboration with Akira Kurosawa.
Perhaps this was Kurosawa establishing a signature contemporary criminal “uniform”, like Scorsese’s dramatic spearpoint collars, Michael Mann’s gray suits and open-neck white shirts, and Tarantino’s black suits and ties with white shirts.
Or maybe Honda just really liked Drunken Angel!
The Quote
They say there’s no such thing as a bad man, only bad situations.
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