Takeshi Sakamoto

There's something quietly poetic about the fact that Takeshi Sakamoto was born in Ako — the very town immortalized by the 47 ronin, a place practically soaked in the idea of loyalty and endurance. Born in 1899, he lived through the Taisho and Showa eras, which means he was acting at a time when Japanese film was still figuring out what it even was, when stage and screen coexisted in this strange, charged way I find genuinely fascinating. He became a Shochiku Kamata favourite, played Kihachi in Ozu's Passing Fancy and A Story of Floating Weeds, and piled up more than 300 films; the Order of the Sacred Treasure followed after his death. A man who worked through 74 years of some of Japan's most turbulent history and left that much on film is worth remembering.

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.

Takeshi Sakamoto was a Japanese actor born on September 21, 1899, in Ako, Hyogo Prefecture. A popular comic supporting player at Shochiku's Kamata studio, he played the lead Kihachi in Yasujirō Ozu's Passing Fancy and A Story of Floating Weeds and appeared in more than 300 films between 1925 and 1965. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Fourth Class. He passed away on May 10, 1974, at the age of 74.

Name (English)

Takeshi Sakamoto

Name (Japanese)

坂本武

Reading

さかもと たけし

Born

September 21, 1899 – May 10, 1974

Origin

Ako, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Boar

Awards & achievements

• Order of the Sacred Treasure, Fourth Class (year unknown)

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9D%82%E6%9C%AC%E6%AD%A6
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11425316

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. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.