Keiju Kobayashi

I'll be honest, Keiju Kobayashi is the kind of actor I love precisely because he never demanded that you love him. Born in Gunma back in 1923 and working clear through the golden and twilight years of Showa cinema, he wasn't the matinee idol type, he was the guy who could slip into a salaryman, a stubborn dad, or a company president and make you forget there was acting happening at all. That quiet reliability is its own rare gift. The 1965 Blue Ribbon for Best Actor and the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1985 tell you the establishment noticed, but what stays with me is the warmth in his eyes, like he understood every small, funny, fragile thing about ordinary people. He passed in 2010, yet on screen he's eternally that gentle, knowing presence. A real craftsman, and I mean that as the highest praise.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Keiju Kobayashi (November 23, 1923 – September 16, 2010) was a Japanese actor and voice actor born in Gunma Prefecture. He dropped out of Nihon University and began acting at Nikkatsu, making his film debut in 1942, and was a versatile character actor who worked steadily through the postwar golden age of Japanese cinema. He received the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor in 1965 and was decorated with the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1985 in recognition of his contributions to the arts.

Name (English)

Keiju Kobayashi

Name (Japanese)

小林桂樹

Reading

こばやし けいじゅ

Born

November 23, 1923 – September 16, 2010

Origin

Gunma Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Actor / Voice Actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Boar

Blood type

B

Active years

1942 - 2010

University

Nihon University

Awards & achievements

• 1965 – Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor
• 1985 – Medal with Purple Ribbon

Works summary

Appearances

355 (1950–2009)

By year (titles with a known year)

1950: 6, 1951: 11, 1952: 12, 1953: 16, 1954: 9, 1955: 12, 1956: 17, 1957: 12, 1958: 12, 1959: 8, 1960: 11, 1961: 11, 1962: 10, 1963: 6, 1964: 4, 1965: 4, 1966: 5, 1967: 5, 1968: 7, 1969: 3, 1970: 4, 1971: 3, 1972: 1, 1973: 2, 1974: 3, 1975: 4, 1976: 4, 1977: 5, 1978: 3, 1979: 3, 1980: 6, 1981: 4, 1982: 3, 1983: 8, 1984: 3, 1985: 3, 1986: 4, 1987: 3, 1988: 3, 1989: 5, 1990: 5, 1991: 2, 1992: 4, 1993: 3, 1994: 3, 1995: 2, 1996: 2, 1997: 3, 1998: 2, 1999: 2, 2000: 1, 2001: 3, 2002: 3, 2003: 3, 2004: 1, 2005: 1, 2007: 3, 2008: 2, 2009: 1, year unknown: 54

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8F%E6%9E%97%E6%A1%82%E6%A8%B9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3067366

Tags

• From Gunma Prefecture
• Actor
• Voice Actor

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. 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.