Tomisaburo Wakayama (若山富三郎, 1929 - April 2, 1992), born Masaru Okumura, was a Japanese actor, best known for playing Ogami Ittō, the disgraced, scowling, 17th century ronin in the six Kozure Okami (Lone Wolf and Cub) samurai feature movies.
Tomisaburo Wakayama was born into a family of Kabuki performers. He and his younger brother Shintaro Katsu both followed their father in the theatre. Wakayama tired of this, and at 13, he began to study judo a...
more
Tomisaburo Wakayama (若山富三郎, 1929 - April 2, 1992), born Masaru Okumura, was a Japanese actor, best known for playing Ogami Ittō, the disgraced, scowling, 17th century ronin in the six Kozure Okami (Lone Wolf and Cub) samurai feature movies.
Tomisaburo Wakayama was born into a family of Kabuki performers. He and his younger brother Shintaro Katsu both followed their father in the theatre. Wakayama tired of this, and at 13, he began to study judo and became 4th Dan black belt, eventually giving up theatre altogether. He spent most of his time teaching Judo until the Japanese film company Toho recruited him as a new martial arts star in their jidaigeki movies.
He prepared for these movies by practicing other disciplines such as Kenpo, Iaido, Kendo, or Bo-Jutsu. All this helped him for portraying Kiichi Hogan in the TV series The Mute Samurai (also called The Silent Samurai), Shikoro Ichibei in the 1975 TV series The Bounty Hunter (Shokin Kasegi) and his most famous role: Ogami Itto, the...
less
