is a Japanese actor.

Biography

Early life

He was born in

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 ...

, son of ''

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 ...

'' film star Ichikawa Utaemon, and graduated from Waseda University School of Letters, Arts and Sciences II in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Acting career

Kin'ya made his debut with his father in the 1956 Toei film ''Oyakodaka'' in the role of Katsu Kaishū. He is a contemporary of, and was taken to be a rival of, Hiroki Matsukata, who was also the son of a famous actor ( Jūshirō Konoe). In 1964, Kin'ya made his first appearance on stage in '' Cyrano de Bergerac''. The 1960s and 1970s saw him in many contemporary roles. He appeared in '' Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima'' and '' Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode'' as well as ''Karei naru Ichizoku''. The title role in the 1975 film '' Takehisa Yumeji'' was his. On television, Kitaōji portrayed Miyamoto Musashi in the Nippon Television show of the same name. A major historical role was Sakamoto Ryōma in the year-long prime-time

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

''taiga'' drama '' Ryōma ga Yuku'' (1968). He landed the title role in the long-running cop show '' Zenigata Heiji'', set in the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. In the 1985 twelve-hour New Year special ''Fūun Yagyū Bugeichō,'' he played Yagyū Jūbei, and in the following year's special, he portrayed both Tokugawa Yoshimune and Yagyū Shinrokurō. The role of another shogun fell to him in the following new year as

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.Tokugawa Iemitsu. Kin'ya returned to NHK for the 1987 Taiga drama '' Dokuganryū Masamune'' as Date Terumune, father of title character Date Masamune. Another role he took had been created by his father. Saotome Mondonosuke was the title character in the series ''Gozonji! Hatamoto Taikutsu Otoko (The Bored Hatamoto)''. It ran from 1988 to 1994 on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

. His father, Ichikawa Utaemon, had appeared in numerous films and a 1973-74 TV series as Mondonosuke. Kin'ya reprised the part of Miyamoto Musashi in the 1990 New Year's special. Toshirō Mifune had portrayed Musashi in the earlier film, also based on the Eiji Yoshikawa story, that had won an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

. He returned to the New Year's special in 1996, again as the famous swordsman, in '' Tokugawa Kengōden Sore kara no Musashi''. His first portrayal of Ōishi Kuranosuke was in the 1996 '' Chūshingura''. He took up the role again in 2004 for the NHK ''Saigo no Chūshingura'' and in 2007, in the New Year special '' Chūshingura Yōzei-in no Inbō''. Other historical roles from the Sengoku period include Azai Nagamasa, Saitō Dōsan, and Yamamoto Kansuke. In addition to historical parts, he appeared in fictional series. His portrayal of Ogami Ittō in ''Kozure Okami ( Lone Wolf and Cub)'' (2002-2004), which was a series for Asahi TV in Japan, is representative of these appearances. In 2008, Kitaōji revisited the role of Katsu Kaishū in the ''taiga'' drama '' Atsuhime''. He had portrayed Katsu in his 1956 debut. He won the award for best actor at the 10th Hochi Film Award for '' Fire Festival'' and '' Haru no Kane''. Kitaōji played one of the lead roles in Hideo Nakata's psychological thriller film '' The Incite Mill''. In recent times, Kitaōji voices the Hokkaido-inu character of "Father" in SoftBank Mobile's White Family advertising campaign.

Filmography

Film

Television

Dubbing

Video games

Honours

* Medal with Purple Ribbon (2007) * Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (2015) * Person of Cultural Merit (2023)

References

External links

*
北大路欣也
at JMDB
Official page
at the Horipro agency {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitaoji, Kinya 1943 births Living people Japanese male film actors Japanese male stage actors Japanese male television actors Japanese male child actors Waseda University alumni Male actors from Kyoto Taiga drama lead actors Horipro artists Persons of Cultural Merit Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class 20th-century Japanese male actors 21st-century Japanese male actors