was a Japanese character actor and narrator. He is known for his work with

Japanese New Wave The is a term for a group of loosely-connected Japanese films and filmmakers between the late 1950s and part of the 1970s. The most prominent representatives include directors Nagisa Ōshima, Yoshishige Yoshida, Masahiro Shinoda and Shōhei I ...

director

Nagisa Oshima is a Japanese name, Japanese given name used by either sex and is occasionally used as a surname. Written forms Nagisa can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *渚, "beach, strand" *汀, "water's edge/shore" *凪砂, "lu ...

, and for several films with

Kaneto Shindo was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film producer, and writer, who directed 48 films and wrote scripts for 238. His best known films as a director include '' Children of Hiroshima'', '' The Naked Island'', '' Onibaba'', '' Kuroneko'' a ...

, such as '' Onibaba'' and ''

Kuroneko Galbraith IV, Stuart (1994). ''Japanese Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Films''. McFarland & Company. is a 1968 Japanese historical drama horror film directed by Kaneto Shindō, and an adaptation of a supernatural folktale. Set during a civi ...

''. He won the best actor award from ''

Kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

'' for the films '' The Ceremony'' and ''Nihon no akuryō''. He also worked as a narrator for many documentaries, both on television and film.

Provenance

The Sato family was an ancestral

Aizu Domain was a Han (Japan), domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1601 to 1871.Ravina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 The Aizu Domain was based at Aizuwakamatsu Castle, Tsuruga Castle in M ...

samurai, and after losing the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

, they ran a wholesale business of lacquerware materials. In addition, Kinuko, the wife of Zensuke Shibukawa, who participated in the February 26 incident and died in prison, is an aunt. After graduating from the dyeing and weaving department of Fukushima Prefectural Aizu Technical School (currently Fukushima Prefectural Aizu Technical High School), while working at the Aizuwakamatsu City Hall Family Register Section In his early days as an actor, before his success in '' The Human Condition'', he supported himself by producing ''gariban'' hand-written

mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator or stencil machine) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a co ...

s, and he maintained his interest in hand-printing to the end of his life. In 1981 he appeared in the film ''

Daydream Daydreaming is a stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when one's attention becomes focused on a more personal and internal direction. Various names of this phenomenon exist, including mind-wandering, fantasies, a ...

'' performing an unsimulated sex scene with actress

Kyoko Aizome is a very common feminine Japanese given name. Not to be confused with Kiyoko. Written forms The final syllable "ko" is typically written with the kanji character for child, 子. It is a common suffix to female names in Japan. The first syll ...

. The involvement of a mainstream actor in a hardcore film made good press coverage and brought audiences to the theater "in droves". Due to his physical condition, he began to refrain from working after the age of 80. He died at 4:19 p.m. on May 2, 2010 at a hospital in Tokyo due to pneumonia at the age of 81.

Filmography

Films

Television

References

External links

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JMDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sato, Kei Japanese male actors 1928 births 2010 deaths Actors from Fukushima Prefecture People from Aizu