Kouji Hashimoto

橋本広司

Kōji Hashimoto, known professionally as Kōji Yakusho, is a renowned Japanese actor, and film director. He was born in Isahaya, Nagasaki, as the youngest of five brothers. After graduation from Nagasaki Prefectural High School of Technology in 1974, he worked at the Chiyoda municipal ward office, or kuyakusho, in Tokyo, from which he later took his stage name. In the spring of 1978, he auditioned for Tatsuya Nakadai's Mumeijuku (Studio for Unknown Performers) acting studio and was one of four chosen out of 800 applicants. In 1983, he landed the role of Oda Nobunaga in the year-long NHK drama Tokugawa Ieyasu and was catapulted to fame. He also appeared in a TV version of Miyamoto Musashi from 1984 to 1985. For several years, he played Kuji Shinnosuke (or "Sengoku"), one of the title characters in the jidaigeki Sambiki ga Kiru!. He played a major character in Juzo Itami's 1986 Tampopo. In 1988, he was given a special award for work in cinema by the Japanese Minister of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture and continued to appear in films and in a number of TV shows through the '90s. In 1996 and 1997, Yakusho enjoyed several major successes. The Eel, directed by Shohei Imamura

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