Following the success of "Yojimbo", Kurosawa found himself under pressure from Toho to create a sequel. Kurosawa turned to a script he had written before "Yojimbo", reworking it to include the hero of his previous film. "Sanjuro" was the first of three Kurosawa films to be adapted from the work of the writer Shūgorō Yamamoto (the others would be "Red Beard" and "Dodeskaden"). It is lighter in tone and closer to a conventional period film than "Yojimbo", though its story of a power struggle within a samurai clan is portrayed with strongly comic undertones. The film opened on January 1, 1962, quickly surpassing "Yojimbo"s box office success and garnering positive reviews.