BIO

Kamatari Fujiwara | 藤原釜足 was born Shigeo Anzai in Tokyo, in 1905.   His father was a publisher.   The family lost their printing business in 1915 and Fujiwara, now at the age of 10, began working in a local candy store.

He began his entertainment career in Kabuki (Japanese opera) and when many of the Tokyo opera houses collapsed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, he became a musician, having learned to play the violin.   Fujiwara soon began entertaining in music halls and, when that business went soft in the early 1930s, turned to acting.

In 1933, Fujiwara made his film debut, at the age of 28, co-starring in a music education film for PCL Films.   He appeared in more than 150 motion pictures over 5 decades and, as part of director Akira Kurosawa’s stock company, can be seen in many of his classics.   Fujiwara's last film was released in 1984.

He married in the 1920s, but lost his wife to illness.   Fujiwara subsequently married the actress Sadako Sawamura (1908-1996) in 1936, but the couple divorced in 1946.

Fujiwara died after a heart attack in Tokyo, in 1985, at the age of 80.

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS