was a Japanese film and kabuki actor. His birth name was ,While the stage names of all kabuki actors have retained traditional order (Surname-Givenname) on Wikipedia, birth names of those born after the Meiji Restoration are in Western order (Givenname-Surname). and his name was legally changed several times, first to , and later to , separate from his performing name.
Six months after his birth in Kyoto he became the adopted son of . He made his kabuki acting debut at the age of 15 under the name . In 1951 he was adopted by and was renamed as Ichikawa Raizō VIII. In 1954 he began a career as a film actor. He received breakout acclaim for his performance in Enjō and received several awards for the performance including the Blue Ribbon Award and the Kinema Junpo Award, both for the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Among his fans he was referred to lovingly as "Rai-sama." In June 1968 he was diagnosed with and underwent surgery for rectal cancer, but it metastasized to his liver and he died the following year.
Ichikawa Raizō appeared mostly in period dramas (jidaigeki). He is best known for the Sleepy Eyes of Death (Nemuri Kyoshirō) series, Ninja (Shinobi no Mono) series and Nakano Spy School (Rikugun Nakano Gakkō) series (based on the Nakano School). Raizō worked many times with director Kenji Misumi. Their collaborations include The Sword (Ken) (from a book by Yukio Mishima) and Destiny's Son, originally released as 斬る (Kiru).
The actor's other notable works include An Actor's Revenge (Yukinojo henge). He was so admired for his gracefulness that in his lifetime he was called "the genius who thinks with his body."
Biography
Birth and adoption by Ichikawa Kudanji III Ichikawa Raizō was born in the Nakagyō ward of Kyoto on August 29, 1931. At the time of his birth, he was named Akio Kamezaki. At six months of age he was adopted by Ichikawa Kudanji III, who renamed him Yoshio Takeuchi.雷蔵, 雷蔵を語る (Raizō, Raizō ga Kataru), Chronology.
According to the film critic Rikiya Tayama, the details of his adoption are as follows: While Raizō's mother was pregnant, Raizō's father was transferred to Nara as an in the Imperial Japanese Army, leaving her behind at his family's home. She was persecuted by his family and attempted to reach out to him for help but was ignored. When she could no longer bear it she fled to her own family's home, where Raizō was born.Tayama 1988, pp. 14-15.ノーベル書房 (Nōberu Shobo) (collected) 1991, p. 265. The relationship between her and her husband having deteriorated, Raizo's mother intended to raise him on her own. At this point she received repeated petitions from her husband's brother-in-law, Ichikawa Kudanji III, to allow him to raise the child. She initially refused these offers, but ultimately relented, and Raizō was officially adopted by Kudanji at the age of six months.Tayama 1988, pp. 15-17. Raizō was not aware of his adoption until he was 16 years old, and he did not meet his mother in person until he was 30.ノーベル書房 (Nōberu Shobo) (collected) 1991 pp. 264-266.
Kabuki debut (1934 – May 1949) In 1934, about two years after his adoption by Ichikawa Kudanji III, Raizō moved from Kyoto to Osaka. Kudanji did not train him as a kabuki actor during his childhood,Ichikawa 1995 p. 16. but in 1946, when he was in his third and final year at Osaka Prefectural Tennoji High School, Raizō elected to withdraw from school to pursue an acting career.On the experience of becoming a kabuki actor, Raizō himself said that as he was on the verge of quitting junior high school and simply spending his time about the house instead, he got something of an interest in the world of kabuki and somehow ended up as a kabuki actor,（Ichikawa 1995, pp. 16-18）but in fact he had attempted to join the Japanese Imperial Navy as an officer or a doctor. His myopia made officership unattainable, and he ended up abandoning hope of becoming a doctor as well.（Tayama 1988, p. 18, Hosaka 2001, p. 321）Tayama 1988, p. 18.Hosaka 2001, p. 321.
In November 1946, at the age of 15, Raizō made his kabuki debut at the Osaka Kabukiza theater under the name Ichikawa Enzō III (Kudanji had previously used the name Ichikawa Enzō II).わたしの雷蔵 (Watashi no Raizō), p. 260.Tayama 1988, pp. 18-19. His first role was the part of Lady Ohana (Musume Ohana) in the play Nakayamashichiri.
In May 1949, a little over two years after his first performance, Raizō formed a study group with two other young kabuki performers. These were Rishō Arashi (known later in his kabuki career as Arashi Kichisaburō VIII, and as Yatarō Kitagami in his acting career) and Nakamura Taro II. They called this group the , which can be translated as "exhaustive meeting," and together they focused diligently on training. However, there was one obstacle that this training could not overcome: Kudanji had been the son of a member of a minor politician in Kyoto rather than a kabuki actor, and had only been apprenticed (to an actor known as Ichikawa Sadanji II) because of Kudanji's own strong desire to enter the world of kabuki. Thus Kudanji was forever labeled as a montei agari – someone born and raised outside of the kabuki world and its "lineage" and later apprenticed into it – and doomed never to exceed a supporting role.Tayama 1988, p. 17. That being the case, no matter how hard Raizō trained, he was unlikely to gain noteworthy roles as a kenmon performer as long as he remained the son of Kudanji.
Adoption by Ichikawa Jūkai III (June 1949 – June 1951)
In 1949, in the same period that Raizō was establishing the Tsukushikai, a kabuki theater director named Tetsuji Takechi was scouting for young, talented kabuki performers to join his traditionalist troupe, Tetsuji Kabuki.Takechi Kabuki’s first production opened in December 1949. The members of the Tsukushikai participated in this troupe and thus made the acquaintance of Tetsuji. Tetsuji thought very highly of Raizō's acting talents, but realized that so long as he remained known as Kudanji's son he would never be able to truly shine in the world of kabuki and his talent would be wasted.ノーベル書房 (Nōberu Shobo) (collected) 1991, p. 195. To that end Tetsuji formed a plan to have Raizō take the name of , which had been unused for a quarter century, but Nakamura Jakuemon III – who was no longer performing, but still alive – was dissatisfied with Raizō's thus-far inability to gain real recognition and refused to allow the name's use.Tayama 1988, p. 21-22.
After that, it is known that Tetsuji intended to apprentice Raizō under the childless ."I've heard that when Rokusuke Ei was a child, there was a plan to have him adopted by Ichikawa Jukai III. Ei refused, saying he didn't want to become a kabuki actor." (「編集手帳」(Henshū Techō) 読売新聞 (Dokubai Shimbun) September 6, 2014). In December 1950, Ichikawa Jukai III attended a meeting of the Tsukushikai in an observational capacity. He was highly impressed by Raizō's performance as Minamoto no Yoriie in the play Shuzenji Monogatari. Jukai had been the son of a kimono-maker and thus had had no connection to the world of kabuki through his lineage, but despite this, through great effort on his part, Jukai had become quite renowned in the Kansai kabuki scene during and after the Second World War. By the time he met Raizō in 1950, Jukai had become the president of the Kansai Kabuki Actors Guild, a position of great influence. Furthermore, the name "Jukai" had been bestowed upon Ichikawa Jukai III by both of the actors who had used it before: Ichikawa Danjūrō VII and Ichikawa Danjūrō IX; and he had even been granted usage of the and yagō and kamon traditionally used by the head of the Ichikawa line.The “Kotobuki Ebi” is currently used by Ichikawa Ebizō, representative of the Ichikawa line, as an alternative to his usual kamon as his acting symbol. With the help of some mutual friends, Tetsuji was successful in his efforts and Jukai agreed to officially adopt Raizō.Tayama 1988, pp. 22-23. At this point Jukai wished to give Raizō the name , a name with deep roots in the Ichikawa house stretching back to the 1600s, but the chief cabinet secretary of the Ichikawa house, Ichikawa En'ō II, viciously fought against this wish, stating "We can't bestow a name with such deep family ties to some unknown performer from an unknown line."It was hoped that Ichikawa Shinzō V, who was adopted by Ichikawa Danjurō IX, would someday take the name “Ichikawa Danjurō X,” but he fell ill and died young, so this never came to pass. After long negotiations they finally settled on the name "Ichikawa Raizō."Tayama 1988, p. 27. The adoption was finalized in April 1951, and the ceremony for the succession of the "Ichikawa Raizo" name was carried out in June of the same year.Tayama 1988, pp. 27-28.市川1995, pp. 297-298. According to the film director Kazuo Ikehiro, around this time rumors began to circulate that Ichikawa Jukai III was actually Raizō's biological father.Muro'oka 1993, p. 208.
Upon his second adoption Raizō's legal name was changed again as well, to Yoshiya Ōta. This name was chosen by Raizō himself, as he was weary of being judged by his current family name.Muramatsu 2006, pp. 234-236. According to Akinari Suzuki, the studio president of Daiei Kyoto Studio, Raizō often advised those around him to consider changing their names, and it's said that some 20 to 30 people related to the film studio did so upon Raizō's recommendation. In fact, Masako Nagata, the woman Raizō would eventually marry, was originally named Kyōko, and changed her given name after Raizō suggested she do so.Tayama 1988, p. 74.
Transition into film acting (July 1951 – 1957) Raizō became Jukai's adopted son in 1951, but Jukai believed that the 20-year-old Raizō was still too young to take on major roles and adopted a policy of only giving him minor roles for the time being.Tayama 1988, p. 28. As a result of this Raizō decided to pursue a film career in 1954 and joined the Daiei film studio.Tayama 1988, pp. 28-30.
Regarding his transition to film acting, Raizō maintained that he did it simply because it seemed like a good opportunity and he wanted to try it out.市川1995, pp. 20-21. Rikiya Tayama has said that the real reason was that Raizō, dissatisfied with the treatment he received over the years, was extremely upset when he was cast as an idiot without a single line in the Osaka Kabukiza's performance of Kōya Hijiri in June 1954,Raizō, who had been pining after a role in Kōyahijiri, said to Tetsuji Takechi, “thanks to this, I’ll be stuck as a supporting actor for all time.”（ノーベル書房 (Nōberu Shobo) (Complete) 1991, 196.） and thus decided to leave the world of kabuki for good. Fortuitously he received an offer from Daiei Films who intended to position him as a star in their jidaigeki – period dramas – and accepted it, leaving the kabuki world for film.Tayama 1988, pp. 28-30. From that time forwards, Raizō only performed in a single kabuki play: the January 1964 production of Kanjinchō directed by Tetsuji Takechi at the newly completed Nissay Theater, in which he played Yasuie Togashi. On that occasion Raizō said, "In Kabuki you're no good unless you're old. In film you're no good once you're old. While I'm still young I'll make a living in film, once I've gotten older I'll try kabuki again."Tayama 1988, pp. 76-77. Once he had decided to pursue a film career, Raizō began to frequent the movie theater to study the performances of Yorozuya Kinnosuke in jidaigeki produced by Toei.Hosaka 2001, p. 324.