Tatsuya Nakadai

Tatsuya Nakadai (仲代 達矢, Nakadai Tatsuya, born Motohisa Nakadai; December 13, 1932) is a Japanese film actor.^[1]

Tatsuya Nakadai
仲代 達矢
Nakadai in 2009
Born	Motohisa Nakadai (仲代 元久) (1932-12-13) December 13, 1932 (age 91) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1952–present

He was featured in 11 films directed by Masaki Kobayashi, including The Human Condition trilogy, wherein he starred as the lead character Kaji, plus Harakiri, Samurai Rebellion and Kwaidan.

Nakadai worked with some of Japan's best-known filmmakers—starring or co-starring in five films directed by Akira Kurosawa, as well as being cast in significant films directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara (The Face of Another), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs), Kihachi Okamoto (Kill! and The Sword of Doom), Hideo Gosha (Goyokin), Shirō Toyoda (Portrait of Hell) and Kon Ichikawa (Enjō and Odd Obsession).

Biography

Nakadai grew up in a very poor family and was unable to afford a university education, prompting him to take up acting. He picked up a liking of Broadway musicals, and travelled once a year to New York City to watch them^{[citation needed]}. Nakadai was working as a shop clerk in Tokyo before a chance encounter with director Masaki Kobayashi led to him being cast in the film The Thick Walled Room. The following year, he made a brief and uncredited cameo in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai where he is seen for a few seconds as a samurai walking through town.^[2] Nakadai's role in Seven Samurai was technically his debut as The Thick-Walled Room's release was delayed for three years due to controversial subject matter. His major breakthrough as an actor came when he was given the part of Jo, a young yakuza in Black River, another film directed by Kobayashi. Nakadai continued to work with Kobayashi into the 1960s and won his first Blue Ribbon Award for his role in Harakiri (his personal favorite among his own films) as the aging rōnin Hanshiro Tsugumo.

Nakadai appeared in two more Kurosawa films from the 1980s. In Kagemusha Nakadai plays both the titular thief turned body-double and the famous daimyō Takeda Shingen whom the thief is tasked with impersonating. This dual role helped him win his second Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor. In Ran Nakadai plays another daimyo, Hidetora Ichimonji (loosely based on King Lear from Shakespeare's play King Lear and inspired by the historical daimyo Mōri Motonari).

He taught and trained promising young actors including Kōji Yakusho, Mayumi Wakamura, Tōru Masuoka, Azusa Watanabe, Kenichi Takitō and others.^[3]

In 2015, he received the Order of Culture.^[4][5]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Ref.
1953	The Thick-Walled Room	Prisoner	Masaki Kobayashi	Released 1956; uncredited
1954	Seven Samurai	Samurai Wandering Through Town	Akira Kurosawa	Uncredited
1956	Hi no tori	Keiichi Naganuma	Umetsugu Inoue
	Hadashi no Seishun	Yūji Wada	Senkichi Taniguchi
	Sazae-san	Norisuke Namino	Nobuo Aoyagi
	Oshidori no Ma	Andō	Keigo Kimura
1957	Black River	Joe	Masaki Kobayashi
	Oban	Shin-don	Yasuki Chiba
	Untamed	Kimura	Mikio Naruse
	Hikage no Musume	Motohashi	Shūe Matsubayashi
	Zoku Oban: Fuun hen	Shin-don	Yasuki Chiba
	A Dangerous Hero (Kiken na eiyu)	Imamura	Hideo Suzuki
	Zokuzoku Oban: Dotou hen	Shin-don	Yasuki Chiba
	Sazae's Youth (Sazae-san no seishun)	Norisuke Namino	Nobuo Aoyagi
1958	A Boy and Three Mothers	Kensaku	Seiji Hisamatsu
	All About Marriage (Kekkon no subete)	Akira Nakayama	Kihachi Okamoto
	Go and Get It (Buttsuke honban)	Hara	Kozo Saeki
	Enjō	Togari	Kon Ichikawa
	Naked Sun	Jirō Maeda	Miyoji Ieki
1959	The Human Condition: No Greater Love	Kaji	Masaki Kobayashi	Lead role
	Odd Obsession	Kimura	Kon Ichikawa
	The Human Condition: Road to Eternity	Kaji	Masaki Kobayashi	Lead role
	Yaju shisubeshi	Kunihiko Date	Eizo Sugawa	Lead role
	Three Dolls in Ginza (Ginza no onéchan)	Kyōsuke Tamura	Toshio Sugie
	An'ya Kōro	Kaname	Shirō Toyoda
1960	When a Woman Ascends the Stairs	Kenichi Komatsu	Mikio Naruse
	Daughters, Wives, and a Mother (Musume tsuma haha)	Shingo Kuroki	Mikio Naruse
	The Blue Beast (Aoi yaju)	Yasuhiko Kuroki	Hiromichi Horikawa
	Get 'em All ("Minagoroshi no uta" yori kenju-yo saraba!)	Tsubota	Eizō Sugawa
1961	As a Wife, As a Woman (Tsuma to shite onna to shite)	Minami	Mikio Naruse
	Yojimbo	Unosuke	Akira Kurosawa
	The Human Condition: A Soldier's Prayer	Kaji	Masaki Kobayashi	Lead role
	Kumo ga chigieru toki	James Kimura	Heinosuke Gosho
	Immortal Love	Heibei	Keisuke Kinoshita
1962	Sanjuro	Muroto Hanbei	Akira Kurosawa
	Love Under the Crucifix (Oginsama)	Takayama Ukon	Kinuyo Tanaka	Lead role
	The Inheritance (Karami-ai)	Kikuo Furukawa	Masaki Kobayashi
	Harakiri	Tsugumo Hanshirō	Masaki Kobayashi	Lead role
	Madame Aki	Uojirō Tatsumi	Shirō Toyoda
1963	High and Low	Chief Detective Tokura	Akira Kurosawa
	Pressure of Guilt (Shiro to kuro)	Ichirō Hamano	Hiromichi Horikawa	Lead role
	Legacy of the 500,000	Mitsuru Gunji	Toshiro Mifune
	Miren	Ryōta Kinoshita	Yasuki Chiba
	A Woman's Life (Onna no rekishi)	Takashi Akimoto	Mikio Naruse
1964	Arijigoku sakusen	Ishiki	Takashi Tsuboshima	Lead role
	Kwaidan	Minokichi	Masaki Kobayashi	Lead role
1965	Saigo no shinpan	Jirō	Hiromichi Horikawa	Lead role
	Fort Graveyard (Chi to suna)	Sakuma	Kihachi Okamoto
	Illusion of Blood	Iemon	Shirō Toyoda	Lead role
1966	Cash Calls Hell (Gohiki no shinshi)	Oida	Hideo Gosha	Lead role
	The Sword of Doom	Ryunosuke Tsukue	Kihachi Okamoto	Lead role	[6]
	The Face of Another	Mr. Okuyama	Hiroshi Teshigahara	Lead role
	The Daphne (Jinchoge)	Professor Kanahira	Yasuki Chiba
1967	The Age of Assassins (Satsujin kyo jidai)	Shinji Kikyo	Kihachi Okamoto	Lead role
	Kojiro	Miyamoto Musashi	Hiroshi Inagaki
	Samurai Rebellion	Asano Tatewaki	Masaki Kobayashi
	Japan's Longest Day	Narrator	Kihachi Okamoto
1968	Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!	James Elfego	Tonino Cervi
	Kill!	Genta	Kihachi Okamoto	Lead role
	Admiral Yamamoto	Narrator	Seiji Maruyama		[7]
	The Human Bullet	Narrator	Kihachi Okamoto
1969	Goyokin	Magobei	Hideo Gosha	Lead role
	Eiko's 5000 Kilograms (Eiko e no 5,000 kiro)	Takeuchi	Koreyoshi Kurahara
	Battle of the Japan Sea	Akashi Motojiro	Seiji Maruyama
	Hitokiri	Takechi Hanpeita	Hideo Gosha
	Blood End (Tengu-to)	Sentarō	Satsuo Yamamoto	Lead role
	Portrait of Hell	Yoshihide	Shirō Toyoda	Lead role
1970	Duel at Ezo (Ezo yakata no ketto)	Daizennokami Honjo	Kengo Furusawa
	Bakumatsu	Nakaoka Shintarō	Daisuke Itō
	The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan	Kataoka Naojirō	Masahiro Shinoda
	Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival	Ronin	Kenji Misumi
	Will to Conquer (Tenka no abarembo)	Yoshida Tōyō	Seiji Maruyama
1971	Inn of Evil (Inochi boni furo)	Sadashichi	Masaki Kobayashi	Lead role
	Battle of Okinawa	Colonel Hiromichi Yahara	Kihachi Okamoto	Lead role
	The Wolves (Shussho Iwai)	Seji Iwahashi	Hideo Gosha	Lead role
1973	Osho	Sekine	Hiromichi Horikawa
	The Human Revolution	Nichiren	Toshio Masuda
	Rise, Fair Sun	Sakuzo	Kei Kumai	Lead role
1974	Karei-naru Ichizoku	Teppei Manpyō	Satsuo Yamamoto	Lead role
1975	The Gate of Youth (Seishun no mon)	Jūzō Ibuki	Kirio Urayama
	Tokkan	Hijikata Toshizō	Kihachi Okamoto
	I Am a Cat (Wagahai wa neko de aru)	Kushami Chin'no	Kon Ichikawa	Lead role
	Kinkanshoku	Yasuo Hoshino	Satsuo Yamamoto	Lead role
1976	Banka	Setsuo Katsuragi	Yoshisuke Kawasaki
	Zoku ningen kakumei	Nichiren	Toshio Masuda
	Fumō Chitai	Tadashi Iki	Satsuo Yamamoto	Lead role
1977	Sugata Sanshiro	Shōgorō Yano	Kihachi Okamoto
1978	Blue Christmas	Minami	Kihachi Okamoto
	Queen Bee (Jo-oh-bachi)	Ginzo Daidoji	Kon Ichikawa
	Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron	Kumokiri Nizaemon	Hideo Gosha	Lead role
	Hi no Tori (Hi no tori)	Ninigi	Kon Ichikawa
1979	Hunter in the Dark (Yami no karyudo)	Gomyo Kiyoemon	Hideo Gosha	Lead role
1980	Kagemusha	Takeda Shingen / Kagemusha	Akira Kurosawa	Lead role
	The Battle of Port Arthur (also known as 203 kochi)	General Nogi Maresuke	Toshio Masuda	Lead role	[8]
1981	Willful Murder	Yashiro	Kei Kumai	Lead role
1982	Onimasa	Masagoro Kiryuin	Hideo Gosha	Lead role
1984	Fireflies in the North	Takeshi Tsukigata	Hideo Gosha	Lead role
1985	Ran	Lord Hidetora Ichimonji	Akira Kurosawa	Lead role
	The Empty Table (Shokutaku no nai ie)	Nobuyuki Kidoji	Masaki Kobayashi	Lead role
1986	Atami satsujin jiken	Denbei Nikaido	Kazuo Takahashi	Lead role
1987	Hachiko Monogatari	Hidejiro Ueno	Seijirō Kōyama	Lead role
1988	Return from the River Kwai	Major Harada	Andrew V. McLaglen
	Oracion (Yushun)	Heihachiro Wagu	Shigemichi Sugita
1989	Four Days of Snow and Blood (Ni-ni-roku)	Hajime Sugiyama	Hideo Gosha
1991	Heat Wave (Kagero)	Tsunejiro Murai	Hideo Gosha
	Florence My Love	Sakazaki	Seiji Izumi
1992	The Wicked City	Daishu (Yuen Tai Chung)	Mak Tai-Kit
	Basara – The Princess Goh (Goh-hime)	Furuta Oribe	Hiroshi Teshigahara
	Tōki Rakujitsu	Sakae Kobayashi	Seijirō Kōyama
1993	Lone Wolf and Cub: Final Conflict	Yagyu Retsudo	Akira Inoue
	Summer of the Moonlight Sonata (Gekko no natsu)	Kazama (postwar)	Seijirō Kōyama
1995	East Meets West	Katsu Rintarō	Kihachi Okamoto
1996	Miyazawa Kenji sono ai	Seijirō Miyazawa	Seijirō Kōyama
1999	After the Rain	Tsuji Gettan	Takashi Koizumi
	Spellbound	Hideaki Sasaki	Masato Harada
2001	Vengeance for Sale (Sukedachi-ya Sukeroku)	Umetaro Katakura	Kihachi Okamoto
2002	To Dance With the White Dog (Shiroi inu to Waltz wo)	Eisuke Nakamoto	Takashi Tsukinoki	Lead role
	Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS	Konosuke Matsushita	Kiyoshi Sasabe
2003	Like Asura	Kotaro Takezawa	Yoshimitsu Morita
2005	Yamato	Katsumi Kamio (75 years old)	Junya Sato
2006	The Inugamis	Sahei Inugami	Kon Ichikawa
2009	Listen to My Heart	Kyozo Hayami	Shinichi Mishiro
2010	Haru's Journey	Tadao Nakai	Masahiro Kobayashi	Lead role
	Zatoichi: The Last	Tendo	Junji Sakamoto
2012	Until The Break Of Dawn	Sadayuki Akiyama	Yūichirō Hirakawa
2013	Human Trust	Nobuhiko Sasakura	Junji Sakamoto
2015	Yuzuriha no koro	Kenichiro Miya	Mineko Okamoto
2017	Lear on the Shore	Chōkitsu Kuwabatake	Masahiro Kobayashi	Lead role
2018	The Negotiator: Behind The Reversion of Okinawa	Narrator	Tsuyoshi Yanagawa
2022	The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai	Makino Tadayuki	Takashi Koizumi		[9]

Animated film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1973	Kanashimi no Belladonna	The Devil	Eiichi Yamamoto
1983	Final Yamato	Narrator	Tomoharu Katsumata / Yoshinobu Nishizaki / Takeshi Shirado / Toshio Masuda
2013	The Tale of Princess Kaguya	Sumiyaki no Roujini	Isao Takahata
2014	Giovanni's Island[10]	Junpei Senō (Old)	Mizuho Nishikubo

Theater

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1964	Hamlet	Hamlet	Koreya Senda
1968	Yotsuya Kaidan	Tamiya Iemon	Eitaro Ozawa
1971	Othello	Othello	Koreya Senda
1974	Richard III	Richard	Toshikiyo Masumi
1975	The Lower Depths	Satine	Toshikiyo Masumi
1978	Oedipus Rex	Oedipus	Tomoe Ryu (Yasuko Miyazaki)
1982	Macbeth	Macbeth	Tomoe Ryu (Yasuko Miyazaki)
1990	Cyrano de Bergerac	Cyrano de Bergerac	Tomoe Ryu (Yasuko Miyazaki)
2000	Death of a Salesman	William "Willy" Loman	Kiyoto Hayashi
2001	The Merry Wives of Windsor	John Falstaff	Kiyoto Hayashi
2005	Driving Miss Daisy	Hoke	Ikumi Tanno
2008	Don Quixote	Miguel de Cervantes	Ikumi Tanno
2010	John Gabriel Borkman	John Gabriel Borkman	Tamiya Kuriyama
2013	Bluebeard's Castle	The Bard	Michiyoshi Inoue
2014	Barrymore	John Barrymore	Ikumi Tanno
2014	Romeo and Juliet	Father Lawrence	Ikumi Tanno

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1971	Shin Heike Monogatari	Taira no Kiyomori	Lead role, Taiga drama
1977	Castle of Sand	Eitaro Imanishi	Lead role
1990	13 Assassins (Jusan-nin no Shikaku)	Shimada Shinzaemon	Lead role
1995	Daichi no Ko	Kōji Matsumoto	Lead role
1996	Hideyoshi	Sen no Rikyū	Taiga drama	[11]
2004	Socrates in Love	Kentarō Matsumoto	Special appearance
2007	Fūrin Kazan	Takeda Nobutora	Taiga drama	[12]
2014	Zainin no Uso	Kenzō Haneda
2015	Haretsu	Kuraki
	Hatashiai	Sanosuke	Lead role, TV movie
2016	Kyoaku wa Nemurasenai	Yōhei Tachibana
	Cold Case
2017	Henkan Kōshōnin	Narrator	TV movie
2020	The Return	Unokichi	Lead role, TV movie

Honours

• Chevalier De L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1992)
• Medal with Purple Ribbon (1996)
• Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (2003)
• Person of Cultural Merit (2007)
• Asahi Prize (2013)
• Kawakita Award (2013)
• Toshiro Mifune Award (2015)
• Order of Culture (2015)^[4]
• Honorary citizen of Tokyo (2024)^[13]

References

1. "Tatsuya Nakadai". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2013-10-08.
2. Stephens, Chuck. "The Eighth Samurai: Tatsuya Nakadai". Current. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
3. "無名塾公演「おれたちは天使じゃない」 @ウェスタ川越 大ホール". ARK. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
4. "仲代達矢に文化勲章 高倉健さん以来の俳優5人目". Sanspo. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
5. "Tokyo: Tatsuya Nakadai Set to Receive Lifetime Achievement Honor". The Hollywood Reporter. 24 October 2019.
6. Stuart Galbraith IV (16 May 2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Scarecrow Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-4616-7374-3.
7. "連合艦隊司令長官 山本五十六". eiga.com. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
8. The Battle of Port Arthur (203 Kochi) in the Internet Movie Database
9. "峠 最後のサムライ". eiga.com. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
10. "Full Trailer for I.G's Hand-Drawn Anime Film Giovanni's Island Posted". Anime News Network. 2013-12-18. Retrieved 2013-12-21.
11. "秀吉の出演者・キャスト一覧". The Television. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
12. "風林火山". Haiyaku Jiten. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
13. "仲代達矢、名誉都民の顕彰式に出席「思いがけない栄誉。これからも頑張って生きていきたい」小池百合子都知事から称号記を贈られる". Sports Hochi. Retrieved 1 October 2024.

Further reading

• Dowsing, Martin. The Face of an Actor - The Life and Films of Tatsuya Nakadai. Testudines, 2021. ISBN 9798476336891

External links

• The Eighth Samurai: Tatsuya Nakadai at the Wayback Machine (archived December 13, 2007) by Chuck Stephens
• Tatsuya Nakadai at IMDb
• Tatsuya Nakadai at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)
• http://www.criterion.com/explore/195-tatsuya-nakadai
• http://www.tohokingdom.com/people/tatsuya_nakadai.htm
• https://www.amc.com/talk/2008/06/an-evening-with