The Karma Canon: Representations and Subversions of Buddhist Thought in East Asian Cinema

"The most interesting element, however, is the character carved on the headstone–‘mu,’ which means ‘nothing’ in Japanese. Meanwhile, other filmmakers like Kurosawa and Mizoguchi, just like any traditional headstones in a Japanese cemetery, only display the family name. [...] The first term to point towards is the Buddhist concept of emptiness, which ‘mu’ likely implies."