Yūzō Kayama (加山 雄三, Kayama Yūzō) is a Japanese popular musician and film star, born on April 11, 1937. His father, Ken Uehara, was one of the most popular film stars in Japan during the 1930s. Yuzo Kayama became one of Japan's biggest stars of the 1960s in the "Wakadaishô" or "Young Guy" film series.
He showed his ability for drama when Akira Kurosawa cast him for his 1965 film, Red Beard (赤ひげ, Akahige), starring Toshiro Mifune. Kayama reported t...
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Yūzō Kayama (加山 雄三, Kayama Yūzō) is a Japanese popular musician and film star, born on April 11, 1937. His father, Ken Uehara, was one of the most popular film stars in Japan during the 1930s. Yuzo Kayama became one of Japan's biggest stars of the 1960s in the "Wakadaishô" or "Young Guy" film series.
He showed his ability for drama when Akira Kurosawa cast him for his 1965 film, Red Beard (赤ひげ, Akahige), starring Toshiro Mifune. Kayama reported that he found the two years spent making this film the most difficult, but proudest work of his life.
As a guitarist, he took inspiration from the American surf group The Ventures, and performed a distinctly Japanese form of psychedelic surf music in the 1960s with his Mosrite guitar. This triggered a big fashion statement in Japan, mainly in Osaka where younger men would walk around with surfboards, despite the lack of any nearby beaches. One of Kayama's best-known instrumentals is "Black Sand Beach". As a singer, he is best known for the...
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