was a Japanese

film actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

best known for starring roles in

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "historical drama, period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, crafts ...

directed by leading Japanese filmmakers.

Early life and family

Ōkōchi was born Masuo Ōbe on February 5, 1898, in Ōkōchi, Iwaya (present-day Ōkōchi, Buzen),

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

, the fifth son and eighth of nine children of town physician Susumu Ōbe and his wife Aki. Ōkōchi was born to a family of physicians; his father Susumu was the 16th generation of the Ōbe family of physicians, and had served as a personal physician to the

daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to ...

before establishing his own practice following the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. His paternal grandmother was the daughter of Suematsu Gendō, the domain doctor of

Kokura is an ancient Jōkamachi, castle town and the center of modern Kitakyushu, Japan. Kokura is also the name of the Kokura Station, penultimate station on the southbound San'yō Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR West. Ferries connect Kokura ...

. His mother Aki was the daughter of a

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...

scholar and

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

in the service of Nakatsu Domain.

Career

Ōkōchi entered Shinkokugeki (New National Theatre), training under Sawada Shōjirō (aka Sawasho). Sawada founded this new school of popular theatre in 1917 which had strong cultural impact by the early 1920s.Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, ''Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema'', Duke University Press, 2000; Ch "Seven Samurai" p213 Shinkokugeki was known for

the period drama genre, particularly for its realistic sword fights (''tate'') or swordplay (''kengeki''). With this background, Ōkōchi entered the

Nikkatsu is a Japanese film studio located in Bunkyō. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Motion Pictures". Shareholders are Nippon Television Holdings (35%) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (28.4%). ...

studio in 1925 and soon came to fame in chanbara (sword-fighting) samurai films – a subgenre of jidaigeki emphasizing ''tate'' – playing characters such as Chūji Kunisada and Tange Sazen. At his peak, he was one of the top jidaigeki stars alongside Tsumasaburō Bandō and Chiezō Kataoka. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he also appeared in a number of war films. During the second Toho strike in 1946, Okochi led the formation of a new union which opposed the strike. After the end of the strike, the new union became

Shintoho was a Japanese movie studio. It was one of the big six film studios (which also included Daiei, Nikkatsu, Shochiku, Toei Company, and Toho) during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. It was founded by defectors from the original Toho company ...

. He was directed by

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

, Ishiro Honda, Daisuke Itō, Sadao Yamanaka,

Teinosuke Kinugasa was a Japanese filmmaker and actor. His best-known films include the Silent film, silent Experimental film, avant-garde films ''A Page of Madness'' and ''Crossroads (1928 film), Crossroads'' and the Academy Awards, Academy Award-winning historic ...

Hiroshi Inagaki was a Japanese filmmaker who worked on over 100 films in a career spanning over five decades. He is one of the most successful and critically acclaimed filmmakers in the history of Japanese cinema, having directed several ''jidaigeki'' epics s ...

and

Masahiro Makino was a Japanese film director. He directed more than 260 films, primarily in the chanbara and yakuza film, yakuza genres. His real name was , but he took the stage name Masahiro, the kanji for which he changed multiple times (including , , and ). ...

Death

Ōkōchi had ceased acting by 1961, dying a year later on July 18, 1962.

Legacy

His house and garden in

Arashiyama is a district on the western outskirts of Kyoto, Japan. It also refers to the mountain across the Katsura River, Ōi River, which forms a backdrop to the district. Arashiyama is a Cultural Properties of Japan, nationally designated Monument ...

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, called

Ōkōchi Sansō is the former home and garden of the Japanese ''jidaigeki'' (period film) actor Denjirō Ōkōchi in Arashiyama, Kyoto. The villa is open to the public for an admission fee and is known for its gardens and views of the Kyoto area. Several of the ...

, are still preserved and open to the public.

Selected filmography

*'' Yaji and Kita: The Battle of Toba Fushimi'' (1927) *'' Yaji and Kita: Yasuda's Rescue'' (1927) *'' A Diary of Chuji's Travels'' (1927) (忠治旅日記 Chūji tabi nikki) *'' Oatsurae Jirokichi Koshi'' (1931) *'' The Million Ryo Pot'' (1935) *'' The Giant'' (1938) *'' Hawai Mare oki kaisen'' (1942) *'' Sanshiro Sugata'' (1943) *'' Ano hata o ute'' (1944) *'' Sanshiro Sugata Part II'' (1945) *'' The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail'' (1945) *'' No Regrets for Our Youth'' (1946) *'' Aru yo no Tonosama'' (1946) *''

The Tale of Genji is a classic work of Japanese literature written by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu around the peak of the Heian period, in the early 11th century. It is one of history's first novels, the first by a woman to have wo ...

'' (1951) *'' Dedication of the Great Buddha'' (1952) *'' Eagle of the Pacific'' (Taiheiyô no washi) (1953) *'' The Princess Sen'' (1954) *'' Yagyu Secret Scrolls'' (1957) *'' Dai-bosatsu tōge'' (1957) *'' Akō Rōshi'' (1961)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okochi, Denjiro Japanese male film actors 1898 births 1962 deaths People from Buzen, Fukuoka Male actors from Fukuoka Prefecture Japanese male silent film actors 20th-century Japanese male actors