, sometimes credited as Kō Kimura, was a Japanese stage and film actor who appeared in more than one hundred films of directors such as

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily Shoshimin-eiga, shōshimin-eiga ("common people drama") films with f ...

Tadashi Imai was a Japanese film director known for social realist filmmaking informed by a left-wing perspective. His most noted films include '' An Inlet of Muddy Water'' (1953) and '' Bushido, Samurai Saga'' (1963). Life Although leaning towards left-win ...

and

Yoshishige Yoshida , also known as Kijū Yoshida, was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Life and career Graduating from the University of Tokyo, where he studied French literature, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and worked as an assistant t ...

Biography

Kimura was born in Hiroshima City, and graduated from the

Bunka Gakuin is a Japanese vocational school. It opened in 1921 as the first co-educational school in Japan. Alumni * Hisae Imai * Takako Irie * Liu Chi-hsiang * Yoko Mizuki * Akiko Santo * Akira Terao *Mitsu Yashima * Guan Zilan, Chinese painter Referen ...

school,

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, in 1943. In 1945, he lost his parents in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and was himself exposed to radiation. He joined the Haiyuza Theatre Company in 1946, but left four years later to form the Youth Actor Club (Gekidan Seihai) with Eiji Okada and Nobuo Kaneko. Kimura acted in films since 1942. Notable appearances include Kurosawa's ''

Stray Dog A free-ranging dog is a dog that is not confined to a yard or house. Free-ranging dogs include street dogs, village dogs, stray dogs, feral dogs, etc., and may be owned or unowned. The global dog population is estimated to be 900 million, of wh ...

'', ''

Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai action film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. Taking place in 1586 in the Sengoku period of Japanese history, it follows the story of a villag ...

'' and ''

Ikiru is a 1952 Japanese tragedy film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay co-written with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni. The film examines the struggles of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat (played by Takashi Shimura) and his final quest ...

''. In addition, he worked with the Seihai theatre company and made numerous television appearances. He succumbed to cancer and died in 1981, aged 58.

Selected filmography

* '' Hawai Mare oki kaisen'' (1942) – Kurata * '' The Love of Sumako the Actress'' (1947) * ''

'' (1949) – Yusa the criminal * ''Angry Street'' (1950) * ''Elegy'' (1951) * ''Nakinureta ningyō'' (1951) * ''Dokkoi ikiteru'' (1951) * '' Dancing Girl'' (1951) – Nozu * ''Yamabiko gakkō'' (1952) * ''Boryoku'' (1952) * ''

'' (1952) – Intern * ''Vacuum Zone'' (1952) – Kitani * ''Onna hitori daichi o yuku'' (1953) * ''Pu-san'' (1953) * ''

'' (1954) – Katsushiro Okamoto * ''Okuman choja'' (1954) – Koroku Tate * ''Ashizuri misaki'' (1954) * ''Hi no hate'' (1954) * '' Ningen gyorai kaiten'' (1955) * ''Ofukuro'' (1955) * ''Beautiful Days'' (1955) * ''Asunaro monogatari'' (1955) – Kashima * ''Kyatsu o nigasuna'' (1956) – Takeo Fujisaki * ''Tengoku wa doko da'' (1956) * ''Boshizō'' (1956) – Shimizu * ''

Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese epic ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film transposes the plot of English dramatist William Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'' (1606) fr ...

'' (1957) – Phantom samurai * '' The Rice People'' (1957) – Senkichi * ''Bibō no miyako'' (1957) * '' Jun'ai monogatari'' (1957) – Doctor at Segawa Hospital * '' Anzukko'' (1958) – Ryokichi Urushiyama – the husband * ''Kisetsufu no kanatani'' (1958) * ''

Summer Clouds , also titled ''Herringbone Clouds'', is a 1958 Japanese drama (film and television), drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It was Naruse's first film in colour and in widescreen, widescreen format. Plot Journalist Okawa interviews farming woman ...

'' (1958) – Okawa * ''Kēdamonō no torū michi'' (1959) * ''Onna to kaizoku'' (1959) – Koshichi * ''Hahakogusa'' (1959) – Yoshihiko Takayama * ''Keishichō monogatari: Iryūhin nashi'' (1959) * ''Shiroi gake'' (1960) * ''Yōtō monogatari: hana no Yoshiwara hyakunin-giri'' (1960) * ''Ikinuita jūroku-nen: Saigo no Nippon-hei'' (1960) – Takano, Army officer * ''Kēnju yaro ni gо̄yojin'' (1961) * ''Miyamoto Musashi'' (1961) – Hon'iden Matahachi * ''Machi'' (1961) – News paper editor * ''Hachi-nin me no teki'' (1961) – Kutsuda * ''Knightly Advice'' (1962) * ''Nippon no obaachan'' (1962) – Taguchi * ''The Temple of the Wild Geese'' (1962) – Atsumichi Uda * ''Watakushi-tachi no kekkon'' (1962) * ''Miyamoto Musashi: Showdown at Hannyazaka Heights'' (1962) – Hon'iden Matahachi * ''Seki no yatappe'' (1963) * '' High and Low'' (1963) – Detective Arai * ''

Bushido, Samurai Saga , also titled ''Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai'' and ''Cruel Tale of Bushido'', is a 1963 Japanese drama and jidaigeki film directed by Tadashi Imai. It was entered into the 13th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Gold ...

'' (1963) – Hirotaro Iguchi * ''Miyamoto Musashi: Nitо̄ryū kaigen'' (1963) – Hon'iden Matahachi * ''Miyamoto Musashi: The Duel at Ichijoji'' (1964) – Hon'iden Matahachi * ''

Assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

'' (1964) – Tadasaburо̄ Sasaki * ''Ware hitotsubu no mugi naredo'' (1964) * ''Shape of the Night'' (1964) – Saitо̄ * ''Bakumatsu zankoku monogatari'' (1964) * ''Miyamoto Musashi: Ganryū-jima no kettо̄'' (1965) – Hon'iden Matahachi * '' Akutō'' (1965) – Shioya Hangan * ''Tange Sazen: Hien iaigiri'' (1966) – Yagyu Genzaburo * ''Aogeba tōtoshi'' (1966) * ''The Affair'' (1967) – Mitsuhuru * ''Tabiji'' (1967) – Eikichi * ''Flame and Women'' (1967) – Shingo, Ibuki * '' Black Lizard'' (1968) – Detective Kogoro Akechi * '' Affair In The Snow'' (1968) – Kazuo Imai * ''Snow Country'' (1969) – Shimamura * ''Secret Information'' (1969) – Goro Izawa * '' Chōkōsō no Akebono'' (1969) * ''Sakariba nagashi uta: Shinjuku no onna'' (1970) – Funaki * ''Tenkan no abarembo'' (1970) – Hanpeita Takechi * ''Confessions Among Actresses'' (1971) – Director Nose * '' Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell'' (1974) – Tsuchigumo Hyoei * '' Pastoral: To Die in the Country'' (1974) – Film Critic * ''Nagisa no shiroi ie'' (1978) – Toshihiko Kurahashi

References

External links

* 1923 births 1981 deaths Deaths from esophageal cancer in Japan Male actors from Hiroshima 20th-century Japanese male actors {{Japan-film-actor-stub