Ichikawa Utaemon

Utaemon Ichikawa, trained in kabuki from childhood, made his film debut in 1925 and then headlined jidaigeki, Japan's period dramas, from the 1920s all the way into the 1960s. Sit with that span for a moment. He began in silent cinema and was still a leading man decades later, through the arrival of sound and the arrival of color. Whole grammars of filmmaking were invented and discarded around him, and audiences kept wanting to see him draw a sword. Very few screen careers in any country survive that much technological upheaval at the top of the bill. He also worked as a producer, meaning he understood the machinery behind the camera as well as the pose in front of it. He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1972 and died in 1999 at ninety-two. Much of the visual vocabulary Western viewers associate with samurai film was shaped by performers like him.

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Name (English)

Ichikawa Utaemon

Name (Japanese)

市川右太衛門

Reading

いちかわ うたえもん

Born

February 25, 1907 – September 16, 1999

Origin

Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

actor / film producer / kabuki actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Goat

Active years

1925 - 1964

Awards & achievements

• 1972 Medal with Purple Ribbon

Works summary

Appearances

123 (1950–1992)

By year (titles with a known year)

1950: 6, 1951: 2, 1952: 7, 1953: 5, 1954: 4, 1955: 6, 1956: 4, 1957: 5, 1958: 3, 1959: 6, 1960: 7, 1961: 4, 1962: 2, 1963: 2, 1964: 1, 1973: 1, 1981: 1, 1986: 1, 1989: 1, 1990: 1, 1992: 1, year unknown: 53

Debut work

旗本退屈男捕物控 七人の花嫁

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utaemon%20Ichikawa
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B8%82%E5%B7%9D%E5%8F%B3%E5%A4%AA%E8%A1%9B%E9%96%80
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4205284

Tags

• Osaka Prefecture
• actor
• film producer
• kabuki actor

Last updated

September 29, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.