is a Japanese actor. He has won two

Japanese Academy Awards The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

for best actor, for ''

The Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

'' (1988) and ''

Tsuribaka Nisshi 6 is a 1993 Japanese film directed by Tomio Kuriyama. Awards 17th Japan Academy Prize *Won: Best Actor - Toshiyuki Nishida *Nominated: Best Actor - Rentarō Mikuni (also sometimes credited as 三国連太郎) (January 20, 1923 – April 1 ...

'' (1993). He has also won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor for '' Get Up!'' and '' Tsuribaka Nisshi 14'' (2003). Outside Japan he is best known for his role as

Pigsy Zhu Bajie (), also named Zhu Wuneng, is one of the three helpers of Tang Sanzang and a major character of the 16th century novel ''Journey to the West''. Zhu means " swine" and Bajie means " eight precepts". Buddhist scholars consider that both e ...

(Cho Hakkai) in ''

Monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

''. Nishida serves as the current President of Japan Actors Union and Vice President of the Japan Academy Film Prize Organization Committee. He received the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

in 2018.

Early life and family

Nishida was born Toshiyuki Imai on November 4, 1947, in

Kōriyama is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 322,996 people in 141760 households, and a population density of 430 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Kōriyama is designated as a core city and ...

Fukushima may refer to: Japan * Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture ** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan ***Fukushima University, national university in Japan *** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...

, to Izumi and Kie Imai. His biological father Izumi worked at the Kōriyama Postal Savings Bureau, and was born to the family of a ''

karō were top-ranking samurai officials and advisors in service to the ''daimyōs'' of feudal Japan. Overview In the Edo period, the policy of ''sankin-kōtai'' (alternate attendance) required each ''daimyō'' to place a ''karō'' in Edo and anoth ...

'', a top-ranking

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

official. Izumi died when Nishida was young, and Kie raised him while working as a

beautician Cosmetology (from Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''-logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/pedicures, non-permanent hair removal such as ...

. After Kie remarried, Nishida, five years old at the time, was adopted by Kie's younger sister and her husband, Miyo and Tatsuji Nishida, respectively. His adoptive father's ancestors served

Shimazu Nariakira was a Japanese feudal lord (''daimyō'') of the Edo period, the 28th in the line of Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma Domain. He was renowned as an intelligent and wise lord, and was greatly interested in Western learning and technology. He was e ...

, 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 ...

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshima, ...

, and defended Satsuma during the

Anglo-Satsuma War The Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the , was a military engagement fought between Britain and the Satsuma Domain in Kagoshima from 15 to 17 August 1863. The British were attempting to extract compensation and legal justice from ''daimyo ...

. Nishida and his adoptive parents lived at a

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

's office, and although Tatsuji worked at the Kōriyama City Hall, the family was barely making a living. Tatsuji took him to the movies in the weekends, which inspired Nishida to join the drama club at his elementary school. During middle school, he told his parents that he wanted to become an actor and received strong support from his parents. During high school, he moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

to "learn

standard Japanese is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been m ...

". In 1968, he entered an acting school, and his parents moved to Tokyo to support him.

Career

In Japan, he is best known for his

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

comedy series, ''

Tsuribaka Nisshi is a Japanese fishing-themed manga series written by Jūzō Yamasaki and illustrated by Kenichi Kitami. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Big Comic Original'' since 1979. It won the 28th Shogakukan Manga Awa ...

'' ("The Fishing Maniac's Diary"), which currently spans 21 movies. Outside Japan Nishida may be best known for his portrayal of

in the first season of the TV series ''

'', or for his role in the 2008 film ''

The Ramen Girl ''The Ramen Girl'' is a 2008 romantic comedy-drama film starring Brittany Murphy about a girl who goes to Japan and decides to learn how to cook ramen. Murphy also co-produced. Plot Abby (Brittany Murphy) is an American girl who goes to Tokyo t ...

'', as the

sensei Sensei, Seonsaeng, Tiên sinh or Xiansheng, corresponding to Chinese characters , is an East Asian honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese; it is literally translated as "person born before another" or "one who comes ...

of American actress

Brittany Murphy Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack (; November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) was an American actress and singer. Born in Atlanta, Murphy moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and pursued a career in acting. Her breakthrough role was as Tai Fras ...

's character. Nishida has received ten

Japanese Academy Award The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

nominations, winning twice, for best actor in ''

'' in 1988 as

Gakko Candraprabha (lit. 'Moonlight', Chinese: 月光菩薩; pinyin: ''Yuèguāng Púsà''; Romanji: ''Gakkō or Gekkō Bosatsu'') is a bodhisattva often seen with Sūryaprabha, as the two siblings serve Bhaiṣajyaguru. Statues of Candraprabha a ...

'','' and for best actor in ''

'' in 1993. He won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor in 2003 for '' Get Up!'' and '' Tsuribaka Nisshi 14.'' In 2017, Nishida reprised his role as Yakuza

underboss Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The underbo ...

Nishino in

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...

's ''

Outrage Outrage may refer to: * Outrage (emotion), an emotion * Tort of outrage, in law, an alternative term for ''intentional infliction of emotional distress'' Books * ''Outrage'', a novel by Henry Denker 1982 * ''Outrage'', a play by Itamar Moses 2 ...

'' trilogy to positive reviews. In 2018, Nishida received the

, Gold Rays with Rosette, alongside comedian

. Nishida serves as President of Japan Actors Union and Vice President of the Japan Academy Film Prize Organization Committee. He is one of the 'Frontier Ambassadors' for his hometown of Kōriyama City.

Filmography

Film

Television

Variety Show

Dubbing

*''

Robots "\n\n\n\n\nThe robots exclusion standard, also known as the robots exclusion protocol or simply robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the site they are allowed to visi ...

'' (Bigweld)

Honours

Medal with Purple Ribbon are medals awarded by the Government of Japan. They are awarded to individuals who have done meritorious deeds and also to those who have achieved excellence in their field of work. The Medals of Honor were established on December 7, 1881, and we ...

(2008) * Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (2018)

References

External links

*
Official website (in Japanese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nishida, Toshiyuki 1947 births Living people Japanese male actors Actors from Fukushima Prefecture Gr8! Records artists Musicians from Fukushima Prefecture Taiga drama lead actors Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class