Контекст:

Indeed, the “super-samurai” character that Mifune cultivated by the 1960s, and which Kurosawa had so carefully nurtured, became the actor’s archetypal and most beloved persona and established the most enduring shorthand emblem of the director’s work—Mifune swaggering in a kimono, scraggly-bearded, going snic-snic with his sword.