Tales of the Taira Clan – Kenji Mizoguchi (1955)
Throne of Blood – Akira Kurosawa (1957)
The Lower Depths – Akira Kurosawa (1957)
The Hidden Fortress – Akira Kurosawa (1958)
Chuji the Gambler – Senkichi Taniguchi (1960)
Yojimbo – Akira Kurosawa (1961)
Sanjuro – Akira Kurosawa (1962)
Warring Clans – Kihachi Okamoto (1963)
The Samurai Pirate – Senkichi Taniguchi (1963)
Dojo Yaburi: Samurai from Nowhere – Seiichiro Uchikawa (1964)
Samurai Assassin – Kihachi Okamoto (1965)
Irezumi – Yasuzo Masumura (1966)
The Sword of Doom – Kihachi Okamoto (1966)
Kill! – Kihachi Okamoto (1968)
Samurai Banners – Hiroshi Inagaki (1969)
Red Lion – Kihachi Okamoto (1969)
Goyokin – Hideo Gosha (1969)
Tenchu – Hideo Gosha (1969)
Shinsengumi: Assassins of Honor – Tadashi Sawashima (1969)
The Magoichi Saga – Kenji Misumi (1969)
Incident at Blood Pass – Hiroshi Inagaki (1970)
The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan – Masahiro Shinoda (1970)
The Ambitious – Daisuke Ito (1970)
Hunter in the Dark – Hideo Gosha (1979)
Death Shadows – Hideo Gosha (1986)
Shogun's Shadow – Yasuo Furuhata (1989)
After the Rain – Takashi Koizumi (1999)

The amazingly prolific Masaru Sato composed original scores for more than 300 movies over the course of five decades. Following in the traditions established by his mentor Fumio Hayasaka, who composed the music for Rashomon and Seven Samurai, Sato helped to create the distinctive sound of classic chambara. He freely mixed in European and American influences with Eastern traditions, resulting in a jazzy saxophone-and-percussion sound that got cross-pollinated with Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores. Sato's fun and funky stylings can best be heard in Yojimbo, Sanjuro and Kihachi Okamoto's Kill!