Ichikawa Raizō VIII

In a 2014 blog post, Ichikawa Ebizō XI implied that the honorific name Ichikawa Raizō was under his care, and thus it can be seen as having been returned to the Ichikawa house and line following Raizō's death.

In 2000, Kinema Junpō published an article titled “Film Stars of the 20th Century: Male Actors.” Raizō placed 6th. In the same issue's “Readers’ Choice: Male Film Stars of the 20th Century" he was ranked 7th. In the 2014 list of “All Time Best Japanese Film Stars” he was ranked 3rd in the list of male actors.

In 1974, five years after Raizō's death, a fan club called “Raizō-kai” was formed. This fan club is still functioning as of this writing in 2012. According to Masaki Matsubara, once president of Daiei Kyoto Studios, Raizō's fans were drawn in by his acting and his humanity, and thus, unlike many other stars of the time, his fanbase had the rare characteristic of having many intelligent and educated female fans. “You didn’t see the type that only squealed and caused a big fuss,” he said. The “Ichikawa Raizo Film Festival,” in which a selection of his films are shown, became an annual event, held each year on the anniversary of his death, July 17. From December 2009 until May 2011 an especially large event was held and his performances were screened to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his passing.

Raizō's final film, Bakuto Ichidai: Chimatsuri Fudō, was an example of the then-popular ninkyō eiga – pro-yakuza films – produced by Toei Studios. Raizō was reluctant to participate, saying “Should I just reheat the scraps left by Kōji Tsuruta?” – Tsurata being an actor well known for performing in such films – but Masayoshi Tsuchiya convinced him, saying “I’ll make sure you get the next role you want to play.” The following year Tsuchiya expressed deep regret that this role which Raizō had not wanted to play had become his last. In 1971, two years after Raizō's death, Daiei Studios filed for bankruptcy. Seiji Hoshikawa reflected on this, saying “Raizō’s death was a precursor to Daiei’s bankruptcy.”

After leaving the hospital, Raizo performed in the films Nemuri Kyōshirō: Akujo-gari (released January 11, 1969), and Bakuto Ichidai: Chimatsuri Fudō (released February 12, 1969), but his physical strength was rapidly dwindling, and they had to resort to a body double with voice-over for all of his scenes involving walking and movement. In February 1969, complaining of physical unwellness, Raizō was admitted to the hospital once again. After his second surgery Raizō was so weak that he couldn't swallow soup, but he deeply wished to play the role of a naval officer in the film Aa, Kaigun, and began talks with people related to the film. His recovery was not complete by the time filming began, and Daiei cast Nakamura Kichiemon II as a substitute in order to begin filming. After learning of the recast by reading it in the newspaper, Raizō never again spoke about work. He died several months later, on July 17, of liver cancer, at the age of 37. His funeral was held on July 23, at the Ikegami Honmon-ji temple in the Ōta ward of Tokyo. His grave is at the same temple.

According to Kazuo Ikehiro, as Raizō's experience as an actor accumulated he began to desire to take a larger role in film creation through directing. Ikehiro advised Raizō to pursue the role of producer, rather than director, as he would then be able to make decisions about subject matter, scripts, and casting in addition to direction. In January 1968, Raizō said “I want to assemble a new dramatic production, the likes of which has never been seen before,” and began the process of establishing a new theater company called “Teatoro Kaburaya” at which he would take a producer role, but as soon as it was founded he fell ill and the company never began operations. According to Seiji Hoshikawa, director of 14 of Raizō's films, Raizō said to Hoshikawa and Kenji Misumi, “Cinema might not have that much time left. Let’s stage a play sometime, the three of us. Let’s give a new job a shot,” and more specifically “Let’s try to capture Kawatake Mokuami’s works through a modern lens.”

In June 1968, while in the process of filming Seki no Yatappe, Raizō visited a doctor because of bloody stool, and was soon admitted to the hospital. The results of his examinations clearly indicated rectal cancer, but the diagnosis was not made known to Raizō. On August 10, Raizō underwent surgery and was released from the hospital, but his family received a prognosis from his doctor stating that Raizō would “relapse in about half a year.” Raizō had possessed a weak digestive system from birth, and had previously visited a doctor for the same symptoms in January 1961, after filming Kutsukake Tokijirō. At that time he had been told simply that “there is a wound in the rectum” when examined. There's also a record of him confiding to Tetsuji Takechi, “I’m tormented by diarrhea,” in 1964, at the occasion of his performance of Kanjinchō at the Nissay Theater.

The Nemuri Kyoshirō series of films, which began in 1963 and are known as Sleepy Eyes of Death in the west, are considered to be the representative work of Raizō's later years. According to Tokuzō Tanaka, playing the part of the protagonist, Kyoshirō, was an extreme challenge for Raizō. Speaking of the first film in the series, Sappōchō, even Raizō himself said that "the characteristic 'hollowness' of Kyoshirō simply didn't come out at all" and deemed the film a failure. It wasn't until the fourth film, Joyōken, that Raizō succeeded in bringing the hollowness, dandyism and nihilism of the character to life. The actor Shintarō Katsu described Raizō's performance in the Nemuri Kyoshirō films, saying "When he was playing Kyoshirō he had a real animal magnetism about him, didn't he. Maybe you could say it came from this sense of the shadow of death hanging over him. It really is the face people make when they die, that expression." “When he’d walk by, Rai-chan would cut you with his face. Not with a sword, with his face,” he reminisced, “Rai-chan didn’t become Kyoshirō through his fight scenes or the delivery of his lines, he did it through his face; that’s my opinion, anyway.” Kazuo Ikehiro said, “without speaking, without any kind of facial expression, simply by the way he walked around as though he were carrying his past on his back” Akira Inoue, director of the seventh film in the series, Tajōken, said that there were other actors who played Kyoshirō, but none of them could compare to Raizō when it came to portraying Kyoshirō's soul. Raizō went on to hold the starring role in 12 films in the series, which represents a majority of the starring roles for which Raizō was cast.

Raizō married Masako Nagata, daughter of Masaichi Nagata, in a private wedding ceremony in 1962. She took his name, becoming Masako Ōta, and they had three children together. Raizō had told Masako “I never want [my family] in the public eye,” when he was alive, and she continued to uphold his wishes after his death until 40 years had passed, when a special issue of Bungeishunjū was published in 2009, featuring a memoir by Masako Ōta titled “A love letter to my husband, Ichikawa Raizo, 40 years later.”

It wasn't until the 1960s and the release and success of the Akumyō and Zatoichi series that Katsu became widely discussed and surpassed Raizō in earnings. Akinari Suzuki said of Katsu, “It wasn’t until after shooting 70 or 80 films without a single real hit, that he finally became of use with the release of Akumyō.” According to Tokuzō Tanaka, audience reception to Shiranui Kengyō, released in 1960, was particularly terrible, despite Katsu's highly acclaimed performance, to the point that Tanaka received complaints from movie theater owners about his constant use of Katsu in his films. Reflecting on the state of things in 1959, Katsu said “The banzuke was totally different,” referring to the document listing sumo wrestlers’ ranks before a tournament. “We already knew that Raizō was an ōzeki or a yokozuna. I still hadn’t entered the san’yaku,” meaning that Raizō could be considered to be among the very highest regarded stars, while Katsu was still a relative unknown.

In 1958 Kon Ichikawa cast Raizō in the lead role of the film Enjō, based on the novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. The film was released on August 19 of that year. According to Ichikawa, Hiroshi Kawaguchi was originally intended for the role, but Ichikawa argued against this selection based on an instinctive feeling that Raizō was the right choice for the role and ultimately succeeded in convincing the studio president, Masaichi Nagata, to cast Raizō instead. There was some resistance within the studio, as it was felt that a newcomer with a stammer should not be given such a large role in his second film with the studio, but he was ultimately given the part, stating "we need to give the young actor Ichikawa Raizō a chance if we want to make him into a success." Raizō rose to the occasion and gave an excellent performance. Ichikawa praised Raizō's acting, saying "I give it a perfect score, 100 of 100. There's simply nothing else to say."

In 1955, two years after his film debut, Raizō received great attention for his portrayal of Taira no Kiyomori in director Kenji Mizoguchi's Shin Heike Monogatari, released on September 21 of that year. Tokuzō Tanaka, director of 16 of Raizō's films, stated that at first it seemed as though it would be difficult to make Raizō into a great success, but that impression changed instantly with Shin Heike Monogatari. Kazuo Ikehiro, who directed another 16 of Raizō's films, said that until that point it had seemed that Raizō was simply imitating Kazuo Hasegawa, but bit by bit his innate acting talent had begun to shine through. The film critic Tadao Sato wrote that until now Raizō had "portrayed only handsome young samurai and yakuza, as though following in the footsteps of Kazuo Hasegawa" but that now he "has come to be a distinguished actor worthy of high praise, giving fresh performances in elegant dramas, rather than only performing in chanbara – samurai films with an action focus. In the wake of Shin Heike Monogatari, Raizō performed in over 10 films released in the period of a single year. He worked tirelessly, giving up holidays and weekends to continue filming.

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. 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, 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. 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." 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.

Raizō made his film debut on August 25, 1954 in The Great White Tiger Platoon (Hana no Byakkotai). While Raizō had been held back in the world of kabuki by the circumstances of his parentage, he was treated with great respect in the world of film, as the son of Ichikawa Jukai III, president of the Kanto Kabuki Guild. Daiei's management intended to position Raizō as a successor to the popular Kazuo Hasegawa, and gave Raizō the starring role in his fifth and sixth films, The Young Swordsman (Shiode Kushima Binan Kenpō), released December 22, 1954, and The Second Son (Jinanbō Garasu), released January 29, 1955.

Raizō, as written above, was the son of Ichikawa Kudanji III, a supporting actor by trade, and for a time was known as Ichikawa Enzō II. Shintarō Katsu was the son of Kineya Katsutōji, a nagauta performer and shamisen player, and for a time was known as Kineya Katsumaru II. Both Raizō and Katsu signed on with Daiei in 1954, and joined the company in the same term. Both born in 1931, having made a hurried transition from kabuki to the new world of film, there were many similar circumstances about the pair of young actors.

Six months after his birth in Kyoto he became the adopted son of Ichikawa Kudanji III (三代目 市川 九團次, Sandaime Ichikawa Kudanji). He made his kabuki acting debut at the age of 15 under the name Ichikawa Enzō (市川延蔵, Ichikawa Enzō). In 1951 he was adopted by Ichikawa Jūkai III (三代目 市川 壽海, Sandaime Ichikawa Jūkai) 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.

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. As a result of this Raizō decided to pursue a film career in 1954 and joined the Daiei film studio.

After that, it is known that Tetsuji intended to apprentice Raizō under the childless Ichikawa Jukai III (三代目 市川 壽海, Sandaime Ichikawa Jukai). 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 "Naritaya" (成田屋) and "Kotobuki Ebi" (壽 海老) yagō and kamon traditionally used by the head of the Ichikawa line. With the help of some mutual friends, Tetsuji was successful in his efforts and Jukai agreed to officially adopt Raizō. At this point Jukai wished to give Raizō the name Ichikawa Shinzō (市川 新蔵), 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." After long negotiations they finally settled on the name "Ichikawa Raizō." 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. According to the film director Kazuo Ikehiro, around this time rumors began to circulate that Ichikawa Jukai III was actually Raizō's biological father.

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 Tsukushikai (つくし会), 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. 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.

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. 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. To that end Tetsuji formed a plan to have Raizō take the name of Nakamura Jakuemon (中村 雀右衛門), 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.

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). His first role was the part of Lady Ohana (Musume Ohana) in the play Nakayamashichiri.

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, 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.

Ichikawa Raizō VIII (八代目 市川 雷蔵, Hachidaime Ichikawa Raizō, August 29, 1931 – July 17, 1969) was a Japanese film and kabuki actor. His birth name was Akio Kamezaki (亀崎 章雄, Kamezaki Akio), and his name was legally changed several times, first to Yoshio Takeuchi (武内 嘉男, Takeuchi Yoshio), and later to Yoshiya Ōta (太田 吉哉, Ōta Yoshiya), separate from his performing name.

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.