Raizô Ichikawa

While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier (imdb)

Yonosuke was lived in insatiable pursuit of love affairs with women and men as well, and a celebrated courtesan; the son first made love to a woman at the age of seven. Thereafter, always devoting himself to the affairs, Yonosuke ended up, at 60, sailing to Nyogogashima ("Isle of Women"). This film was adapted for the famous novel, Koshoku ichidai otoko which narrates 54 years of his adventures in affairs of women. (Twitchfilm.net)

Special Forces commander Captain Tadamori returns to Kyoto after successfully defeating the uprising of pirates in the western sea of Japan. But because the high courtiers dislike career soldiers gaining power and influence, they ignore the will of ex-Emperor Toba and refuse to reward the captain. (imdb)

Told in an intricate flashback structure, Enjo dramatizes the psychological collapse of Goichi (Raizo Ichikawa), a young Buddhist acolyte from a dysfunctional family who arrives at a Kyoto temple - the Golden Pavilion - for further study. (Wikipedia)

Japan's timeless tale of honor and revenge, the Loyal 47 Ronin is the true story of group of samurai who became ronin (masterless samurai) after their Lord was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official, Kira Yoshinaka, who had insulted him... (AnimEigo.com)

Ishikawa Goemon, a talented young ninja becomes embedded in a twisted scheme to assassinate Oda Nobunaga, an evil warlord bent on ruling feudal Japan with an iron fist. Deceit, treachery and loads of ninjas lurk around every corner as Goemon travels the countryside to complete his task of winning back his honor, and ultimately his life.

The first stage of Nobunaga Oda's (Tomisaburo Wakayama) plan to unify Japan -- a dangerous mission that involved annihilating the Iga ninjas -- was a resounding success. But full unification will come only if he can bring the country's far-flung warlords together. Nobunaga's task is made all the more difficult by a renegade Iga ninja who managed to survive Nobunaga's initial attack and is now hell-bent on revenge.

The story of two samurai who become embroiled in the conflict between two powerful lords.

A serious young student at a popular dojo is pressured into taking the blame for a treacherous murder in order to save the family of his lovely and devoted fiancé. The real world, which exists outside of the stuffy and hypocritical confines of samurai society, pounds (but does not flatten) the once-idealistic man with unforgettable and incredible bad luck. He endures a number of trials, only to return and discover how dishonorable his elite comrades truly are. (imdb)

The main character is a man from the WW2 generation who has lost his dreams in post-war Japan. While working as a cook in a restaurant he also earns some money as a contract killer. (imdb)

An orphan raised by a Samurai goes on a quest to find himself and discovers a way to bring samurai to their knees.

A young teacher struggles to overcome prejudices in early 20th century Japan.

Based on the novella by Yukio Mishima, Ken is the story of Jiro Kokubu, star pupil of the university kendo club, for whom the sport is a way of life. Unwavering in his asceticism, he willingly foregoes girls, parties and rock music, devoting his entire being to the practice of kendo. The other students, in particular a fellow senior named Kagawa, ridicule him behind his back, but are unable to better him in the dojo. (midnighteye.com)

Hanpei, son of the only servant of a concubin who has turned mad, rumored to have been fathered by a dog, is rejected by his fellow samurais. He becomes a great gardener. But the local lord, son of the mad concubin of the beginning, turns out to be mad as well. Hanpei can run quicker than a horse, and is a natural born swordsman. These talents allow him to be a professionnal killer. Now Hanpei has a place. But the one that follows the path of the sword will have to pay a price. (thelostforum.net)

Intrepid ninja Ishikawa Goemon (Raizo Ichikawa) escapes a gruesome fate and sets out to seek vengeance on the warlord who tried to boil him alive as the legendary Shinobi No Mono saga continues in this action-packed sequel. Ishikawa was staring death square in the eyes when the enigmatic Hattori Hanzo rescued him from certain death. (allmovie.com)

The fourth installment of the legendary Japanese film series starring Ichikawa Raizo, Shinobi No Mono 4: Siege opens to find Tokugawa Ieyasu poised to rule all of Japan. Before Ieyasu can cement his reign, however, he will have to destroy the Toyotomi clan once and for all. The Toyotomi clan is currently besieged in Osaka castle, and Ieyasu's ninja are the only ones capable of penetrating the heavily guarded fortress. (allmovie.com)

On May 8, 1615 the summer campaign of Osaka has reached the climax. This film takes place immediately following Kirigakure Saizou. After Yukimura escapes, Ieyasu orders everyone to be killed. He gets a report after the battle that they are unable to find Yukimura`s body. He offers a big reward for the body. Hanzo reports that a small boat escaped from the castle with 3 men in it. Tokugawa Ieyasu deduces that it must have been Kirigakure Saizou and Yukimura and that they will go to Satsuma. (shinobinomono.oninohana.com)

In the 14th year of Kanei, Toyotomi`s men who managed to survive the battle of Sekigahara went to fight in the battle of Shimabara but there weren't enough men, so they were soundly defeated. Matsudaira Izunokami, a leading general of the Tokugawa side led his men up the road to Edo?but there is a man who is thinking of Tokugawa as his deadly enemy. This is one of the most complicated plots of any of the Shinobi no Mono films! Therefore, this synopsis is a little light on details. (shinobinomono.oninohana.com)

Tokugawa Ieyasu`s dreams have come true - he rules the entire land with his son Hidetada as Shogun in residence in Edo. However, Ieyasu really gives the orders from his castle at Sunpu. In his sickbed, Ieyasu receives word from the priest Tenkai, that he is supremely powerful, but Ieyasu mentions that the Sanada clan ninja are still a threat because they will never give up. He suggests that the Fuma ryuu ninja may be able to fight the Iga ninja and reveals that he has summoned them to Sunpu. (shinobinomono.oninohana.com)

Towards the end of the Tenmon Era, Shogun Ashikaga`s powers were weakening by the day and many were there who planned to overthrow him. It was the beginning of the Sengoku (Warring States) period. As the movie begins, Kasumi Kanbei is testing his gunpowder in a small house when he senses men approaching. He hides his son Kojiro and the gunpowder. As the men enter, he kills two and fights the rest. One of the attackers cuts off Kanbei`s arm with a kusarigama (sickle and chain weapon). (shinobinomono.oninohana.com)

Nemuri Kyoshiro, a youthful and cynical ronin with unparalleled skill, is approached by both sides in a game of corruption, ambition, and double crosses. The leader of the Kaga clan, who thinks he has killed his smuggling partner, fears that the shogunate will discover his illegal activities. He learns of evidence that will prove his guilt. Meanwhile, his partner is not dead, and, assisted by a master of Shorenji boxing, is looking for revenge and for his loot.... (imdb)

When the Shogun's elderly Finance Minister cuts off the allowance of one of the Shogun's widowed daughters to help avert a financial crisis, she responds by sending assassins after him. Kyoshiro befriends the old man and defends him, earning himself the enmity of the vengeful princess as well.

Kyoshiro demonstrates his skill by slicing the clothes from the body of a female opponent, and gets involved in a plot that could spell his doom! (imdb)

During a time when Christians were severely persecuted in Japan, a dying Christian man begs Kyoshiro to protect a saint who is in hiding. In doing so he encounters resistance from a group of opium smugglers and learns much about his own shadowy past.

Set among the matrilineal merchant class of Osaka in the early 20th century, this 1960 family drama by Kon Ichikawa follows the son of a prosperous family (Raizo Ichikawa) as he fathers only boys with various wives and geishas, much to the chagrin of his manipulative grandmother and mother. Ichikawa wrote the script with his wife and frequent collaborator, Natto Wada, and despite its sharp satirical jabs, it carefully notates the hero's ambivalence and regret toward women. (Chicago Reader)

In SWORD OF FIRE, Nemuri is hired to kill an innocent girl who is hiding out as a washerwoman in a small town. Realizing that she has done nothing wrong, Nemuri concocts a plan to mete out justice to those who want her dead.

When the lord of clan has a son, the son will take his father's place. However, as the child gets older, the clan lord realizes that he is not the father of the child, and decides to have him murdered. Saved by a servant, the son is put into hiding and believed to be dead. So when his father dies, the son decides to claim what is rightfully his, namely, the leadership of the clan. The clan, however, has different ideas, so the young man decides to let his sword reason with his would be usurpers.

After being humiliated by Kyoshiro, the Princess Kiku is out for revenge. But the only thing her private Ninja army gets is the Full Moon Cut. In desperation she kidnaps an orphan girl that Kyoshiro has befriended, and holds her hostage hoping to ambush the heroic Kyoshiro.

The wife (Ayako Wakao) and mother (Hideko Takamine) of a nineteenth-century physician battle for his love in this extraordinary drama from the perennially underrated Yasuzo Masumura.

Kyoshiro gets drawn into a complicated plot revolving around the remnants of a failed anti-Shogunate uprising, who are secretly organizing a new attack on Edo castle.

This is essentially the story of Qin from the founding of "China" by his unifying the various provinces, through the building of the great wall on to close to his death.

A peasant ascends to the nobility, only to be destroyed in the process. (Criterion)

One of Japan's most popular stories is the tale of Kutsukake Tokijiro, a traveling gambler who finds that he must take care of the wife and child of a yakuza he had been forced by the code of the gamblers to fight man to man. Tokijiro, having learned the true nature of the boss to whom he was obligated for having spent a night and eaten at the gang's headquarters takes up arms against them in a running battle fought across the back roads of the entire nation.

One day, a handsome visiting priest named Anchin fell in love with a beautiful woman named Kiyohime, but after a time he overcame his passions and refrained from further meetings. Kiyohime became furious at the sudden change of heart and pursued him in rage. The priest and Kiyohime met at the edge of the Hidaka river, where the priest asked a boatman to help him to cross the river, but told him not to let her cross with his boat.

It's near the end of the Tokugawa era. Choshu Clan's Lord has apparently been seeking a Choshu-Satsuma alliance against the desparate Tokugawa regime. But Choshu vassals are divided as to their opinons of this move, as not all are devoted to the idea of the Emperor's restoration. A color remake of the same directors 1925 original Tsukigata Hanpeita and the first version in color. (weirdwildrealm.com)

This early Kenji Misumi picture recounts the story of a band of samurai loyal to the Shogunate, the Shinsengumi, saving Kyoto from a conspiracy of Imperialists. (imdb)

The Son of the Black Mass returns in this ninth installment in Daiei's longstanding Nemuri Kyoshiro series. This time Raizo Ichikawa as Nemuri is called to see that a gold statuette of the Virgin Mary gets safe passage to Kyoto from the prying hands of a sect of murderous Christian ronin that call themselves the Black Finger Group. (imdb)

Two devious retainers are competing to take control of a fief when the current Lord dies, but involving Kyoshiro in the conflict against his will is the textbook example of a bad idea - especially when the collateral damage starts to tick him off. (imdb)

Nemuri arrives at a small village, a fight is posed then postponed, there's a place called the Devil's Fortress and people are being kept locked there and tortured by the villainy occupants, then at some point the villainy occupants are introduced to us by name and a shadowy connection to the Shogun is implied. (imdb)

Just when you think Kyoshiro's life can't get any stranger, someone starts running around raping and murdering, and leaving notes proudly proclaiming that he did it. Tracking down the real culprit willtake him along a twisted trail that involves the Shogun's harem, hidden christians, and positively pregnant politics! (animeigo.com)

The Fencing Master tells the story of a man trying to survive as the only world he knows is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Danpei Ichikawa lives for swordfighting - he was once a renowned kabuki swordfight choreographer, and as the Chairman of the New National Theatre Company, he wants nothing more than to choreograph the swordfights for the modern plays put on by the company. (heroic-cinema.com)

A demon-faced monster seeking revenge appears in the forms of a gigantic ox and a huge spider! The young Genji warrior protects the Fujiwara Clan and the beautiful lady in tragic love! A grand visual epic told with mesmerizing extravagance! (Karagarga)

During the reign of Shogun Hidetada, both Hirate Musashi and Okamoto Musashi strive to become the finest swordsman in the land by defeating the Yagyu clan's top instructors and then taking on Sasaki Kojiro! Three of Daiei's top sword stars combine to create this exciting alternative version of the Musashi legend. (imdb)

First part in a trilogy adaptation of the epic novel by the same name. A master samurai plunges into insanity and goes on a killing spree.

We see the aftermath of Ryunosuke Tsukue's duel with Hyoma Utsugi, both of whom have survived and lots of bodies litter the ground. The rest of this (...) chapter takes us on a journey through central Japan as Ryunosuke escapes from the duel and tries to settle down as a teacher in a dojo before he becomes involved with the Tenchu Group, a small group of rebels (...). In the meantime he gets emotionally involved with a woman that bears an akin resemblance to his deceased wife Ohama (...) (imdb)

Ryunosuke Tsuke is still hunted by his sworn enemy Hyoma Utsugi, whose brother he killed (...). Whenever he tries to settle down and live peacefully (...), a combination of bad luck and bad kharma force him to continue on the path of self-destruction. (...) Just as he settles down with a young woman and her son and she genuinely shows affection for him, he has to save a young man who is accused unfairly of theft, and finds himself captured and forced to work for a corrupt official. (imdb)

The Great White Tiger Platoon was part of the Aizu clan's last ditch efforts to stop the advance of Imperial troops after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Their story is one of the great tragedies of the Boshin War (1868-1869). (imdb)

A love story starring a young Shintarô Katsu

It is brother against brother in this tale of love and betrayal within the famed Yagyu clan. In one of their earliest films together, superstars Ichikawa Raizo and Katsu Shintaro are magnificent as the two finest young swordsmen in the clan. As they vie for the hand of a beautiful woman their loyalty comes into question during an attack on their lord. When one of them masters the secret technique taught to him by Miyamoto Musashi, it leads to bloody violence that can tear the clan apart! (letterboxd)

A satirical comedy about a store clerk who falls in love with his boss's daughter. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo. (The Movie Database)

During the 1200's, legendary Buddhist monk Nichiren returns from his studies to lead Japan out of moral crisis and prepare to fight Mongol invaders by creating a new form of Buddhism. He runs afoul of the existing Buddhist sects and their government supporters and is persecuted. Can Nichiren persevere before the Mogol fleet reaches Japanese shores? (The Movie Database)

The Gay Masquerade (Benten Kozô) a.k.a. The Jovial Rascals of Edo, is a 1958 color Japanese film directed by Daisuke Itô. The film won 1959 Blue Ribbon Awards for best actor Raizo Ichikawa and for best cinematography Kazuo Miyagawa. The film also won 1959 Kinema Junpo Award for best actor Raizo Ichikawa. (wikipedia)

An all-star cast from Daiei Film Company has made "the ultimate Jirocho movie" about the legendary yakuza Shimizu no Jirocho, the biggest Boss in the Tokaido area. Telling the story of Jirocho and his 28 henchmen, some of the greatest actors in movie history play these valiant warriors as they travel the unruly path from a 'Fire Festival' in Akiba to the decisive battle by the Fujigawa River. (The Movie Database)

Once upon a time, Okuro(Ayako Wakao), a young female racoon, lived poorly with her drunken father. One day after they'd disguised themselves as parasols, they were wrongly brought to the Racoon Palace, where the young racoon princess (also Ayako Wakao) made a mess around her arranged marriage with the beautiful racoon prince (Raizô Ichikawa). Pretty princess ran away. (The Movie Database)

The exciting story of Jirocho and his yakuza gang that controlled the area of the Tokaido during the latter days of the samurai era. Awesome fighting from Katsu Shintaro as One-Eyed Ishimatsu highlights this great tale taken from Japanese history! (The Movie Database)

The life of the Buddha Shakamuni. (The Movie Database)

Daiei Film Company's three biggest stars shine in this exciting story about Vice-Shogun Mito Komon's journey to the land of the Ainu. As the shogun's uncle, Lord Mito traveled about the nation seeking to make sure that corruption and injustice did not go unpunished. Traveling together with his two faithful bodyguards Kaku and Suke, they board ship for a voyage to the far northern island of Ezo (modern day Hokkaido) where the indigenous people called "Ainu" live... (The Movie Database)

A Buddhist priest becomes also a magician, dedicating himself to the protection of life wherever it's needed, whereupon he finds himself in direct service of the Queen. Political intrigue tightens around him as it is increasingly assumed that he harbors ulterior motives. (imdb)

One of Japanese folklore's most popular characters is brought to life on the silver screen in this terrific version of legendary Demon slaying Peach Boy. (themoviedb)

A wandering yakuza in search for the man responsible for slicing up his father and an amateur samurai searching for the whereabouts of his own father are thrown together on the outskirts of a mob infested seaside village. (imdb)

Isazo is a traveling gambler and living legend in the world of yakuza, known for his swordsmanship and bravery, his impeccable manners, and his brilliant talent in gambling. One late fall at an inn in Kiso Fukushima, Isazo befriends a young boy whose mother turns out to be his old love Yoshino, with whom he was not unable to consummate a marriage due to the class differences between them. (themoviedb)

From the pen of Yoshikawa Eiji comes this exciting story. The Naruto Strait separates Tokushima from the islands of Awaji and Honshu. On Tokushima the mad lord dreams of conquest and forges a bloody revolt against the Tokugawa shogunate. A mysterious swordsman named Noriyuki Gennojo has crossed Naruto's waters to uncover the Awa clan's secrets. He puts his life on the line after finding a testament of Awa's secrets, written in blood by a dying man... (themoviedb)

After the victory of Japan-Russia War, boss of the Nanjo family is stabbed to death. His son abandons his naval position in order to succeed as the new boss of the family. (imdb)

Masakichi was a troublemaker until he found a right girl to marry. Unfortunately, his happiness is short-lived - she kills herself after being raped.

A young officer must choose between love and duty. (imdb)

Ronin samurai Ibuki-san enters a town and sells his skills to the warring families. He falls in love with the beautiful horse stable owner but like all heroes, cannot stay.