Yoshio Inaba

Yoshio Inaba is one of those actors who might not ring a bell by name, but the moment you picture Seven Samurai — that lean, coiled figure playing Gorobei, the warrior who laughs at danger right up until he joins the cause — you realize you've known him all along. Born in Narita, Chiba in 1920, he came up through the Haiyuza Theatre Company, and that stage discipline shows: even in the chaos of Kurosawa's battle scenes he's never mugging, never wasting a move. He kept working across four decades, turning up in Throne of Blood, Harakiri, and more, always the kind of reliable presence that holds a scene together without demanding the spotlight. That's a rare gift, and honestly an underrated one.

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.

Yoshio Inaba (July 15, 1920 – April 20, 1998) was a Japanese actor born in Narita, Chiba Prefecture. He attended Nihon University. A member of the Haiyuza theatre company who was active from 1953 to 1989, he is best known for playing Gorobei in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

Name (English)

Yoshio Inaba

Name (Japanese)

稲葉義男

Reading

いなば よしお

Born

July 15, 1920 – April 20, 1998

Origin

Narita, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Monkey

Active years

1953 - 1989

University

Nihon University

Works summary

Appearances

251 (1953–1989)

By year (titles with a known year)

1953: 1, 1954: 3, 1955: 3, 1956: 2, 1957: 2, 1958: 2, 1959: 5, 1960: 2, 1961: 4, 1962: 5, 1963: 5, 1964: 3, 1965: 4, 1966: 2, 1967: 1, 1968: 1, 1969: 1, 1970: 3, 1971: 4, 1972: 8, 1973: 10, 1974: 9, 1975: 18, 1976: 12, 1977: 14, 1978: 18, 1979: 14, 1980: 13, 1981: 12, 1982: 10, 1983: 10, 1984: 5, 1985: 5, 1986: 1, 1988: 1, 1989: 1, year unknown: 37

Debut work

悲劇の将軍 山下泰文

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A8%B2%E8%91%89%E7%BE%A9%E7%94%B7
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1861772

Tags

• Born in Chiba 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.