is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

actor and

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

from

Toyohashi is a Cities of Japan, city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 377,453 in 160,516 households and a population density of 1,400 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . By area, Toyohashi was Aichi Prefec ...

Aichi is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefecture ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. His real name is .

Career

In 1974, he joined Shintaro Katsu's production company and made his debut with the television series

Zatoichi is a fictional character created by Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa. He is an itinerant blind masseur and swordsman of Japan's late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). He first appeared in the 1948 essay ''Zatoichi Monogatari'', part of Shimozawa's '' ...

as a guest. For a quarter of a century, he starred in the series ''

The Unfettered Shogun (Abarenbō Shōgun) was a Japanese television program on the TV Asahi network. Set in the eighteenth century, it showed fictitious events in the life of Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa ''shōgun''. The program started in 1978 under the title '' ...

'' as

Tokugawa Yoshimune was the eighth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Yoshimune is know ...

, the title character. He also played a similar role in Kamen Rider OOO Wonderful. Other noteworthy roles include

Hōjō Yoshitoki was the second Hōjō ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate and head of the Hōjō clan. He was the second son of Hōjō Tokimasa. He was ''shikken'' from the abdication of his father Tokimasa in 1205 until his death in 1224. Early y ...

in the 1979

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

series ''Kusa Moeru'', Irobe Matashiro in the 1999 NHK series ''Genroku Ryoran'' (involving the chushingura, that is, the story of the Forty-seven ''rōnin''),

Shibata Katsuie or was a Japanese samurai and military commander during the Sengoku period. He was retainer of Oda Nobuhide. He served Oda Nobunaga as one of his trusted generals, was severely wounded in the 1571 first siege of Nagashima, but then fought ...

in the 2002 NHK series ''Toshiie to Matsu'',

Ōtomo Sōrin , also known as Fujiwara no Yoshishige (藤原義鎮) or Ōtomo Yoshishige (大友義鎮), was a Japanese feudal lord (''daimyō'') of the Ōtomo clan, one of the few to have converted to Catholicism. The eldest son of , he inherited the Funa ...

in the 2004 NHK special ''Ōtomo Sōrin—Kokoro no Ōkoku wo Motomete'', and

Ōishi Kuranosuke Oishi may refer to: * Ōishi (surname), a Japanese surname * Oishi (Philippine brand), a snack company from the Philippines * Oishi Group, a Thai food-and-drink company * Ōishi Station, a train station in Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japa ...

in the 2004

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

series ''Chushingura''. He also played Asano Takumi no Kami, an important (although brief) role, in an earlier chushingura, making a career of that story. In 2005, he is appearing as

Benkei , popularly known by the mononym Benkei (), was a Japanese warrior monk (''sōhei'') who lived in the latter years of the Heian Period (794–1185). Benkei led a varied life, first becoming a monk, then a mountain ascetic, and then a rogue war ...

in ''Yoshitsune'', the yearlong NHK

Taiga drama is the name NHK gives to the annual year-long historical drama television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white ''Hana no Shōgai'', starring kabuki actor Onoe Shoroku II and Awashima Chikage, the network regul ...

. TV Asahi tapped Matsudaira to star as

Tōyama no Kin-san is a popular character based on the historical Tōyama Kagemoto, a samurai and official of the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period of Japanese history. In kabuki and kōdan, he was celebrated under his childhood name, Kinshirō, shortened ...

in the latest (2007) version of their program of the same name. He appeared in ''

Tokugawa Fūun-roku Tokugawa ( , ) may refer to: *Tokugawa era, an alternative term for the Edo period, 1603 to 1868 *Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime of Japan during the Edo period **Tokugawa clan, a powerful family of Japan ***Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), most ...

'', the annual ''jidaigeki'' spectacular which was shown on TV Tokyo on January 2, 2008.

''Matsuken Samba''

Matsudaira is also famous as a singer. His most popular song " Matsuken Samba II" (マツケンサンバII) was released in 2004 and became popular with his fanbase. The song gained national attention because his appearance in the likeness of a person in

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

with glittery

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

and a hip-swiveling dance became the topic of some television programs, including parodying him on an idol group

SMAP was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a six-p ...

's variety show, ''

SMAP×SMAP ''SMAP×SMAP'', often referred to simply as ''Sma-Sma'', was a Japanese television variety show hosted by boy band SMAP. Debuting on April 15, 1996, it was produced by Kansai TV and Fuji TV and aired on Fuji TV every Monday from 10:00 p.m. ...

''. The new attention of the media made Matsudaira visible to a younger fanbase. The song became a certified hit, staying on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

Top 100 chart for over a year. A version called featuring Shu Watanabe (Eiji Hino/Kamen Rider OOO) and Ryosuke Miura (Ankh/Shingo Izumi) was released on August 3, 2011, as an ending theme for the movie '' Kamen Rider OOO Wonderful: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals''.

Filmography

Television

* ''

'' (1978–2003) –

* '' Akō Rōshi'' (1979) – Asano "Takumi no Kami" Naganori * ''

Kusa Moeru is a 1979 Japanese television series. It is the 17th NHK taiga drama. It is also the first Taiga drama to standardize the use of modern language in dialogue starting with this one onward. On the other hand, characters did not use first names to ...

'' (1979) –

* ''Taira no Kiyomori'' (1992) –

Taira no Kiyomori was a military leader and '' kugyō'' of the late Heian period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan. Early life Kiyomori was born in Japan, in 1118 as the first son of Taira ...

* ''

Unmeitōge is a Japanese ''jidaigeki'' or period drama that was broadcast in prime-time in 1974. It is based on Renzaburō Shibata's novel of the same title. The lead star is Masakazu Tamura. Plot Akizuki Rokurōta was born as a child of Tokugawa Ieyasu, b ...

'' (1993) - Akizuki Rokurota * ''Benkei'' (1997) –

Musashibō Benkei , popularly known by the mononym Benkei (), was a Japanese warrior monk (''sōhei'') who lived in the latter years of the Heian Period (794–1185). Benkei led a varied life, first becoming a monk, then a mountain ascetic, and then a rogue warr ...

* ''Toshiie and Matsu'' (2002) –

* ''

Yoshitsune Yoshitsune may refer to: * Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159–1189) ** ''Gikeiki'', a Japanese chronicle, sometimes known in English by Helen Craig McCullough's translated title ''Yoshitsune'' ** ''Yoshitsune'' (TV series), a 2005 Japanese television ...

'' (2005) –

* ''

Samurai Rebellion is a 1967 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The film is based on a short story of the same name by Yasuhiko Takiguchi. Its screenplay was written by Shinobu Hashimoto. Film historian Donald Richie suggests an approximate tra ...

'' (2013) * '' Naotora: The Lady Warlord'' (2017) –

Takeda Shingen was daimyō, daimyo of Kai Province during the Sengoku period of Japan. Known as "the Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyo of the late Sengoku period, and credited with exceptional military prestige. Shingen was based in a p ...

* ''

The 13 Lords of the Shogun is a Japanese historical drama television series starring Shun Oguri as Hōjō Yoshitoki. The series is the 61st NHK taiga drama. Cast Starring role *Shun Oguri as Hōjō Yoshitoki. Kōki Mitani pointed out some similarities between him and Mi ...

'' (2022) –

* '' Onihei Hankachō: Honjo Sakura-yashiki'' (2024) * '' Omusubi'' (2024–25) – Eikichi Yoneda * ''Shin The Unfettered Shogun'' (2025) – Tokugawa Yoshimune

Film

*''

Strawberry Road Strawberry Road (28 September 1979 – 1 June 1995) was a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who went on to race in Germany, France, the United States, and Japan. Bred in New South Wales, he was by the 'superbly-bred' Whiskey Road ( N ...

'' (1991) - Hisa Ishii *'' The Ode to Joy'' (2006) *'' Kamen Rider OOO Wonderful: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals'' (2011) -

*''

Sanada 10 Braves is a 2016 Japanese jidaigeki action film directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi. It was released in Japan by Shochiku and Nikkatsu on September 22, 2016. Plot Cast *Nakamura Kankurō VI as Sarutobi Sasuke *Tori Matsuzaka as Kirigakure Saizō *Yuko Oshi ...

'' (2016) -

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

*''Musashi'' (2019) -

Sasaki Kojirō was a Japanese swordsman who may have lived during the Azuchi–Momoyama and early Edo periods and is known primarily for the story of his duel with Miyamoto Musashi in 1612, where Sasaki was killed. Although suffering from defeat as wel ...

Theatrical animation

* '' Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum'' (2013) - Mustard * ''

Her Blue Sky is a 2019 Japanese animated film produced by CloverWorks. The film is directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai and written by Mari Okada, with Masayoshi Tanaka designing the characters and serving as chief animation director. The trio under the creative t ...

'' (2019) - Dankichi Nitobe

Television animation

* '' Rowdy Sumo Wrestler Matsutaro!!'' (2014) - Matsutarō Sakaguchi

Video games

* '' Kamen Rider: Battride War 2'' (2014) - Tokugawa Yoshimune

Japanese dub

*'' X-Men: Apocalypse'' (2016) -

Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...

(

Oscar Isaac Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada (born March 9, 1979) is an American actor. Recognized for his versatility, he has been credited with breaking stereotypes about Hispanic and Latino Americans, Latino characters in Cinema of the United States, H ...

) *'' Wonka'' (2023) - Lofty (

Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor. He has received List of awards ...

)

Awards

References

External links

*
Ken Matsudaira profile at Teichiku record companyKen Matsudaira at NHK
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matsudaira, Ken Japanese male actors 1953 births Living people Musicians from Toyohashi Male actors from Aichi Prefecture