Ryūtarō Tatsumi

Ryūtarō Tatsumi is the kind of actor whose name alone makes you sit up a little straighter. Born in Hyogo in 1905 — Meiji Japan, for context, before radio, before talkies, before basically everything — he lived all the way to 1989, which means he personally witnessed Japan transform from the Meiji empire into a modern industrial nation. That's not a career, that's a geological formation. His world was the Shinkokugeki stage, which he held up alongside Shōgo Shimada, and when Japan finally gave him the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 1969, it felt less like recognition and more like the country quietly admitting it had been watching something extraordinary all along. Adopted out as a boy, he bounced between thirteen households and left commercial school before finding his way to the stage. Guys like this just showed up, learned their lines, and made the audience feel something. Quietly incredible.

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.

Ryūtarō Tatsumi (April 20, 1905 – July 29, 1989) was a Japanese actor born in Hyogo Prefecture. Active across an era that spanned the final years of the Meiji period through the late Showa era, he dedicated his career to the performing arts. In 1969, he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon (Shijuhosho), a state decoration recognizing distinguished contributions to culture and the arts.

Name (English)

Ryūtarō Tatsumi

Name (Japanese)

辰巳柳太郎

Reading

たつみ りゅうたろう

Born

April 20, 1905 – July 29, 1989

Origin

Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Snake

Awards & achievements

• 1969 — Medal with Purple Ribbon (Shijuhosho)

Works summary

Appearances

100 (1952–1987)

By year (titles with a known year)

1952: 1, 1953: 1, 1954: 1, 1955: 2, 1956: 1, 1957: 1, 1959: 2, 1960: 5, 1961: 3, 1963: 1, 1964: 1, 1965: 4, 1966: 2, 1967: 1, 1968: 5, 1969: 5, 1970: 8, 1971: 3, 1972: 4, 1973: 3, 1974: 4, 1975: 7, 1976: 2, 1977: 2, 1978: 4, 1980: 4, 1981: 4, 1982: 3, 1983: 4, 1984: 2, 1985: 1, 1986: 2, 1987: 1, year unknown: 6

Debut work

武蔵と小次郎

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BE%B0%E5%B7%B3%E6%9F%B3%E5%A4%AA%E9%83%8E
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11637873

Tags

• From Hyogo Prefecture
• 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.