I don't know if this is a completely false rumor. But from what i heard the Japan Blu ray releases of Kurosawa used the criterion masters, i think TOHO?

Meaning the source is the same. The encoding could be an entirely different story. You would have to find a site that owns both and does a side by side comparison.

Seems like a lot of releases now use the same masters since both Countries USA AND JAPAN are region A. Unlike the DVD releases were the japan releases were remastered and had better audio and picture than criterion.

Tell me about it Ulrik.

I know it was never the best master, but I am positive if Criterion had of been able to release RAN it would have blown the Studio Canal version away.

Can't wait to see more classics such as The Lower Depths and Red Beard if they can continue with this sort of quality.

Blu-ray.com has just reviewed this with the following final comments:

I have a feeling that a lot of people would be genuinely surprised when they get their hands on Criterion's Blu-ray release of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. This isn't a marginal upgrade of their SDVD release. It is one of the most dramatic upgrades to emerge from them since they began releasing on Blu-ray. Bravo! VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

They also confirm the following:

Region A locked (as with all Criterion Releases)

Video
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Audio

Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 3.0
Japanese: LPCM 1.0

Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 3.0
Japanese: LPCM 1.0 (less)

Subtitles

English, None
English, None (less)

Discs
50GB Blu-ray Disc

I can't wait to get my copy of this (and Sanjuro). Even forked out the extra for courier delivery from Amazon.

Hopefully we will see Seven Samurai announced soon with a similar restoration/upgrade.

Wonder how this compares to the Japanese release....