Classic Film Club

KAMATARI FUJIWARA

Kamatari Fujiwara

Kamatari Fujiwara (1952)
  • © Toho
  • (Kamatari Fujiwara in Ikiru, 1952)

Biography

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.


Other Pictures

Kamatari Fujiwara (1960)

Films

NOTED FILMS

Ikiru

Ikiru
  • Ikiru
  • 生きる
  • 1952
  • A long-time city bureaucrat finds himself unmoored and dissatisfied with his accomplishments once he believes he has contracted stomach cancer and knows his death is imminent.

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai
  • Seven Samurai
  • 七人の侍
  • 1954
  • Akira Kurosawa's homeric story of a band of samurai that defends a small village against marauders in the waning days of the feudal warlord era is not only a genre classic, but also influenced many Westerns decades later.

Ikimono no kiroku

Ikimono no kiroku
  • Ikimono no kiroku
  • 生きものの記録
  • 1955
  • The owner of a foundry, obsessed with the possibility of nuclear war, tries to force his extended family to move with him to Brazil. His progeny won’t budge and, in turn, try to get a judgement of incompetency against him.

    Akira Kurosawa directs Toshiro Mifune.

The Bad Sleep Well

The Bad Sleep Well
  • The Bad Sleep Well
  • 悪い奴ほどよく眠る
  • 1960
  • Executives of two Japanese companies struggle to find the mole who is threatening to expose their contract graft.

    Akira Kurosawa directs Toshiro Mifune.

High and Low

High and Low
  • High and Low
  • 天国と地獄
  • 1963
  • Just as he is putting the finishing touches on a daring take-over, one for which he has mortgaged everything, an executive’s son is feared kidnapped and he must raise a kingly ransom.

    Akira Kurosawa directs Toshiro Mifune.

Complete filmography at: