was a Japanese film and kabuki actor. His birth name was , and his name was legally changed several times, first to , and later to , separate from his performing name.
Six months after his birth in Kyoto he became the adopted son of . He made his kabuki acting debut at the age of 15 under the name . In 1951 he was adopted by and was renamed as Ichikawa Raizà  VIII. In 1954 he began a career as a film actor. He received breakout acclaim for his performance in Enjà  and received several awards for the performance including the Blue Ribbon Award and the Kinema Junpo Award, both for the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Among his fans he was referred to lovingly as "Rai-sama." In June 1968 he was diagnosed with and underwent surgery for rectal cancer, but it metastasized to his liver and he died the following year.
Ichikawa Raizà  appeared mostly in period dramas (jidaigeki). He is best known for the Sleepy Eyes of Death (Nemuri Kyoshirà Â) series, Ninja (Shinobi no Mono) series and Nakano Spy School (Rikugun Nakano Gakkà Â) series (based on the Nakano School). Raizà  worked many times with director Kenji Misumi. Their collaborations include The Sword (Ken) (from a book by Yukio Mishima) and Destiny's Son, originally released as æ‹ (Kiru).
The actor's other notable works include An Actor's Revenge (Yukinojo henge). He was so admired for his gracefulness that in his lifetime he was called "the genius who thinks with his body."
Ichikawa Raizà  was born in the Nakagyà  ward of Kyoto on August 29, 1931. At the time of his birth, he was named Akio Kamezaki. At six months of age he was adopted by Ichikawa Kudanji III, who renamed him Yoshio Takeuchi.
According to the film critic Rikiya Tayama, the details of his adoption are as follows: While Raizà Â's mother was pregnant, Raizà Â's father was transferred to Nara as an in the Imperial Japanese Army, leaving her behind at his family's home. She was persecuted by his family and attempted to reach out to him for help but was ignored. When she could no longer bear it she fled to her own family's home, where Raizà  was born. The relationship between her and her husband having deteriorated, Raizo's mother intended to raise him on her own. At this point she received repeated petitions from her husband's brother-in-law, Ichikawa Kudanji III, to allow him to raise the child. She initially refused these offers, but ultimately relented, and Raizà  was officially adopted by Kudanji at the age of six months. Raizà  was not aware of his adoption until he was 16 years old, and he did not meet his mother in person until he was 30.
In 1934, about two years after his adoption by Ichikawa Kudanji III, Raizà  moved from Kyoto to Osaka. Kudanji did not train him as a kabuki actor during his childhood, but in 1946, when he was in his third and final year at Osaka Prefectural Tennoji High School, Raizà  elected to withdraw from school to pursue an acting career.
In November 1946, at the age of 15, Raizà  made his kabuki debut at the Osaka Kabukiza theater under the name Ichikawa Enzà  III (Kudanji had previously used the name Ichikawa Enzà  II). His first role was the part of Lady Ohana (Musume Ohana) in the play Nakayamashichiri.
In May 1949, a little over two years after his first performance, Raizà  formed a study group with two other young kabuki performers. These were Rishà  Arashi (known later in his kabuki career as Arashi Kichisaburà  VIII, and as Yatarà  Kitagami in his acting career) and Nakamura Taro II. They called this group the , which can be translated as "exhaustive meeting," and together they focused diligently on training. However, there was one obstacle that this training could not overcome: Kudanji had been the son of a member of a minor politician in Kyoto rather than a kabuki actor, and had only been apprenticed (to an actor known as Ichikawa Sadanji II) because of Kudanji's own strong desire to enter the world of kabuki. Thus Kudanji was forever labeled as a montei agari â someone born and raised outside of the kabuki world and its "lineage" and later apprenticed into it â and doomed never to exceed a supporting role. That being the case, no matter how hard Raizà  trained, he was unlikely to gain noteworthy roles as a kenmon performer as long as he remained the son of Kudanji.
In 1949, in the same period that Raizà  was establishing the Tsukushikai, a kabuki theater director named Tetsuji Takechi was scouting for young, talented kabuki performers to join his traditionalist troupe, Tetsuji Kabuki. The members of the Tsukushikai participated in this troupe and thus made the acquaintance of Tetsuji. Tetsuji thought very highly of Raizà Â's acting talents, but realized that so long as he remained known as Kudanji's son he would never be able to truly shine in the world of kabuki and his talent would be wasted. To that end Tetsuji formed a plan to have Raizà  take the name of , which had been unused for a quarter century, but Nakamura Jakuemon III â who was no longer performing, but still alive â was dissatisfied with Raizà Â's thus-far inability to gain real recognition and refused to allow the name's use.
After that, it is known that Tetsuji intended to apprentice Raizà  under the childless . In December 1950, Ichikawa Jukai III attended a meeting of the Tsukushikai in an observational capacity. He was highly impressed by Raizà Â's performance as Minamoto no Yoriie in the play Shuzenji Monogatari. Jukai had been the son of a kimono-maker and thus had had no connection to the world of kabuki through his lineage, but despite this, through great effort on his part, Jukai had become quite renowned in the Kansai kabuki scene during and after the Second World War. By the time he met Raizà  in 1950, Jukai had become the president of the Kansai Kabuki Actors Guild, a position of great influence. Furthermore, the name "Jukai" had been bestowed upon Ichikawa Jukai III by both of the actors who had used it before: Ichikawa Danjà «rà  VII and Ichikawa Danjà «rà  IX; and he had even been granted usage of the and yagà  and kamon traditionally used by the head of the Ichikawa line. With the help of some mutual friends, Tetsuji was successful in his efforts and Jukai agreed to officially adopt Raizà Â. At this point Jukai wished to give Raizà  the name , a name with deep roots in the Ichikawa house stretching back to the 1600s, but the chief cabinet secretary of the Ichikawa house, Ichikawa En'à  II, viciously fought against this wish, stating "We can't bestow a name with such deep family ties to some unknown performer from an unknown line." After long negotiations they finally settled on the name "Ichikawa Raizà Â." The adoption was finalized in April 1951, and the ceremony for the succession of the "Ichikawa Raizo" name was carried out in June of the same year. According to the film director Kazuo Ikehiro, around this time rumors began to circulate that Ichikawa Jukai III was actually Raizà Â's biological father.
Upon his second adoption Raizà Â's legal name was changed again as well, to Yoshiya à Âta. This name was chosen by Raizà  himself, as he was weary of being judged by his current family name. According to Akinari Suzuki, the studio president of Daiei Kyoto Studio, Raizà  often advised those around him to consider changing their names, and it's said that some 20 to 30 people related to the film studio did so upon Raizà Â's recommendation. In fact, Masako Nagata, the woman Raizà  would eventually marry, was originally named Kyà Âko, and changed her given name after Raizà  suggested she do so.
Raizà  became Jukai's adopted son in 1951, but Jukai believed that the 20-year-old Raizà  was still too young to take on major roles and adopted a policy of only giving him minor roles for the time being. As a result of this Raizà  decided to pursue a film career in 1954 and joined the Daiei film studio.
Regarding his transition to film acting, Raizà  maintained that he did it simply because it seemed like a good opportunity and he wanted to try it out. Rikiya Tayama has said that the real reason was that Raizà Â, dissatisfied with the treatment he received over the years, was extremely upset when he was cast as an idiot without a single line in the Osaka Kabukiza's performance of Kà Âya Hijiri in June 1954, and thus decided to leave the world of kabuki for good. Fortuitously he received an offer from Daiei Films who intended to position him as a star in their jidaigeki â period dramas â and accepted it, leaving the kabuki world for film. From that time forwards, Raizà  only performed in a single kabuki play: the January 1964 production of Kanjinchà  directed by Tetsuji Takechi at the newly completed Nissay Theater, in which he played Yasuie Togashi. On that occasion Raizà  said, "In Kabuki you're no good unless you're old. In film you're no good once you're old. While I'm still young I'll make a living in film, once I've gotten older I'll try kabuki again." Once he had decided to pursue a film career, Raizà  began to frequent the movie theater to study the performances of Yorozuya Kinnosuke in jidaigeki produced by Toei.
Raizà  made his film debut on August 25, 1954, in The Great White Tiger Platoon (<nowiki/>Hana no Byakkotai). While Raizà  had been held back in the world of kabuki by the circumstances of his parentage, he was treated with great respect in the world of film, as the son of Ichikawa Jukai III, president of the Kanto Kabuki Guild. Daiei's management intended to position Raizà  as a successor to the popular Kazuo Hasegawa, and gave Raizà  the starring role in his fifth and sixth films, The Young Swordsman (Shiode Kushima Binan Kenpà Â), released December 22, 1954, and The Second Son (Jinanbà  Garasu), released January 29, 1955.
In 1955, two years after his film debut, Raizà  received great attention for his portrayal of Taira no Kiyomori in director Kenji Mizoguchi's Shin Heike Monogatari, released on September 21 of that year. Tokuzà  Tanaka, director of 16 of Raizà Â's films, stated that at first it seemed as though it would be difficult to make Raizà  into a great success, but that impression changed instantly with Shin Heike Monogatari. Kazuo Ikehiro, who directed another 16 of Raizà Â's films, said that until that point it had seemed that Raizà  was simply imitating Kazuo Hasegawa, but bit by bit his innate acting talent had begun to shine through. The film critic Tadao Sato wrote that until now Raizà  had "portrayed only handsome young samurai and yakuza, as though following in the footsteps of Kazuo Hasegawa" but that now he "has come to be a distinguished actor worthy of high praise, giving fresh performances in elegant dramas, rather than only performing in chanbara â samurai films with an action focus. In the wake of Shin Heike Monogatari, Raizà  performed in over 10 films released in the period of a single year. He worked tirelessly, giving up holidays and weekends to continue filming.
Raizà  had weak legs, and would often become faint when standing or walking. Masayoshi Tsuchida, then head of Daiei's planning department, said that it must have been an incredible adventure to play "Kiyomori, the youth who pierced the heavens" for the physically frail Raizà Â. Raizà  was self-conscious about the weakness of his legs and joined the sumo club at Doshisha University in an attempt to train and strengthen them, but it was no use. Whenever photos were taken of Raizà Â, the photography staff took special precautions to frame the shot in such a way as to avoid showing Raizà Â's weak legs. According to Kenji Misumi, director of 18 of Raizà Â's films, Raizà  deeply loathed the physical frailty of his body, but when he finally managed to overcome that loathing and accept himself he became capable of incredible composure.
In 1958 Kon Ichikawa cast Raizà  in the lead role of the film Enjà Â, based on the novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. The film was released on August 19 of that year. According to Ichikawa, Hiroshi Kawaguchi was originally intended for the role, but Ichikawa argued against this selection based on an instinctive feeling that Raizà  was the right choice for the role and ultimately succeeded in convincing the studio president, Masaichi Nagata, to cast Raizà  instead. There was some resistance within the studio, as it was felt that a newcomer with a stammer should not be given such a large role in his second film with the studio, but he was ultimately given the part, stating "we need to give the young actor Ichikawa Raizà  a chance if we want to make him into a success." Raizà  rose to the occasion and gave an excellent performance. Ichikawa praised Raizà Â's acting, saying "I give it a perfect score, 100 of 100. There's simply nothing else to say."
It's often said that Raizà Â's performance in Enjà  reflected his childhood. Ichikawa said, "He's expressing something of his true self through his performance," and "He's overcome something through his acting ... some sort of burden he had been carrying; and his indescribable life can be seen in his expression." Tokuzà  Tanaka said that Raizà Â's complicated childhood had caused something like a base part of his heart to emerge, merging with and adding depth to his performance. Kazuo Ikehiro said that precisely because of this "hidden part of his childhood," or "base part of his heart," that Raizà  was perfectly equipped for the performance. Once, when a member of the Daiei planning department named Hisakazu Tsuji mused aloud that he felt as though his performance in Enjà  reflected Raizà Â's childhood, Raizà  did not refute it.
For his performance in Enjà Â, Raizà  received the Kinema Junpo Award for best male actor in a leading role, and the Blue Ribbon Award for best performer in a leading role, among others. Raizà Â's position as a star had been secured.
The Nemuri Kyoshirà  series of films, which began in 1963 and are known as Sleepy Eyes of Death in the west, are considered to be the representative work of Raizà Â's later years. According to Tokuzà  Tanaka, playing the part of the protagonist, Kyoshirà Â, was an extreme challenge for Raizà Â. Speaking of the first film in the series, Sappà Âchà Â, even Raizà  himself said that "the characteristic 'hollowness' of Kyoshirà  simply didn't come out at all" and deemed the film a failure. It wasn't until the fourth film, Joyà Âken, that Raizà  succeeded in bringing the hollowness, dandyism and nihilism of the character to life. The actor Shintarà  Katsu described Raizà Â's performance in the Nemuri Kyoshirà  films, saying "When he was playing Kyoshirà  he had a real animal magnetism about him, didn't he. Maybe you could say it came from this sense of the shadow of death hanging over him. It really is the face people make when they die, that expression." âÂÂWhen heâÂÂd walk by, Rai-chan would cut you with his face. Not with a sword, with his face,â he reminisced, âÂÂRai-chan didnâÂÂt become Kyoshirà  through his fight scenes or the delivery of his lines, he did it through his face; thatâÂÂs my opinion, anyway.â Kazuo Ikehiro said, âÂÂwithout speaking, without any kind of facial expression, simply by the way he walked around as though he were carrying his past on his backâ Akira Inoue, director of the seventh film in the series, Tajà Âken, said that there were other actors who played Kyoshirà Â, but none of them could compare to Raizà  when it came to portraying Kyoshirà Â's soul. Raizà  went on to hold the starring role in 12 films in the series, which represents a majority of the starring roles for which Raizà  was cast.
According to Kazuo Ikehiro, as Raizà Â's experience as an actor accumulated he began to desire to take a larger role in film creation through directing. Ikehiro advised Raizà  to pursue the role of producer, rather than director, as he would then be able to make decisions about subject matter, scripts, and casting in addition to direction. In January 1968, Raizà  said âÂÂI want to assemble a new dramatic production, the likes of which has never been seen before,â and began the process of establishing a new theater company called âÂÂTeatoro Kaburayaâ at which he would take a producer role, but as soon as it was founded he fell ill and the company never began operations. According to Seiji Hoshikawa, director of 14 of Raizà Â's films, Raizà  said to Hoshikawa and Kenji Misumi, âÂÂCinema might not have that much time left. LetâÂÂs stage a play sometime, the three of us. LetâÂÂs give a new job a shot,â and more specifically âÂÂLetâÂÂs try to capture Kawatake MokuamiâÂÂs works through a modern lens.âÂÂ
In June 1968, while in the process of filming Seki no Yatappe, Raizà  visited a doctor because of bloody stool, and was soon admitted to the hospital. The results of his examinations clearly indicated rectal cancer, but the diagnosis was not made known to Raizà Â. On August 10, Raizà  underwent surgery and was released from the hospital, but his family received a prognosis from his doctor stating that Raizà  would âÂÂrelapse in about half a year.â Raizà  had possessed a weak digestive system from birth, and had previously visited a doctor for the same symptoms in January 1961, after filming Kutsukake Tokijirà Â. At that time he had been told simply that âÂÂthere is a wound in the rectumâ when examined. There's also a record of him confiding to Tetsuji Takechi, âÂÂIâÂÂm tormented by diarrhea,â in 1964, at the occasion of his performance of Kanjinchà  at the Nissay Theater.
After leaving the hospital, Raizo performed in the films Nemuri Kyà Âshirà Â: Akujo-gari (released January 11, 1969), and Bakuto Ichidai: Chimatsuri Fudà  (released February 12, 1969), but his physical strength was rapidly dwindling, and they had to resort to a body double with voice-over for all of his scenes involving walking and movement. In February 1969, complaining of physical unwellness, Raizà  was admitted to the hospital once again. After his second surgery Raizà  was so weak that he couldn't swallow soup, but he deeply wished to play the role of a naval officer in the film Aa, Kaigun, and began talks with people related to the film. His recovery was not complete by the time filming began, and Daiei cast Nakamura Kichiemon II as a substitute in order to begin filming. After learning of the recast by reading it in the newspaper, Raizà  never again spoke about work. He died several months later, on July 17, of liver cancer, at the age of 37. His funeral was held on July 23, at the Ikegami Honmon-ji temple in the à Âta ward of Tokyo. His grave is at the same temple.
It has been said that in the time before his death, Raizà  deliriously entreated that nobody be allowed to see his face when he died. His wife, Masako à Âta, staunchly denies these claims, stating âÂÂRaizà  never gave up on recovery, even until the end; he never even wrote a will.â Nevertheless, after his death Raizà Â's face was wrapped in two layers of white cloth, which remained in place even as he was cremated. According to Masako, Raizà  had said only âÂÂI donâÂÂt want anyone to see how dreadfully thin I've become,â and because of that wish she had not allowed anyone aside from his adopted father, Jukai, and his company president, Nagata, to see his face after his death.
Raizà Â's final film, Bakuto Ichidai: Chimatsuri Fudà Â, was an example of the then-popular ninkyà  eiga â pro-yakuza films â produced by Toei Studios. Raizà  was reluctant to participate, saying âÂÂShould I just reheat the scraps left by Kà Âji Tsuruta?â â Tsurata being an actor well known for performing in such films â but Masayoshi Tsuchiya convinced him, saying âÂÂIâÂÂll make sure you get the next role you want to play.â The following year Tsuchiya expressed deep regret that this role which Raizà  had not wanted to play had become his last. In 1971, two years after Raizà Â's death, Daiei Studios filed for bankruptcy. Seiji Hoshikawa reflected on this, saying âÂÂRaizà ÂâÂÂs death was a precursor to DaieiâÂÂs bankruptcy.âÂÂ
In 1974, five years after Raizà Â's death, a fan club called âÂÂRaizà Â-kaiâ was formed. This fan club is still functioning as of this writing in 2012. According to Masaki Matsubara, once president of Daiei Kyoto Studios, Raizà Â's fans were drawn in by his acting and his humanity, and thus, unlike many other stars of the time, his fanbase had the rare characteristic of having many intelligent and educated female fans. âÂÂYou didnâÂÂt see the type that only squealed and caused a big fuss,â he said. The âÂÂIchikawa Raizo Film Festival,â in which a selection of his films are shown, became an annual event, held each year on the anniversary of his death, July 17. From December 2009 until May 2011 an especially large event was held and his performances were screened to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his passing.
In 2000, Kinema Junpà  published an article titled âÂÂFilm Stars of the 20th Century: Male Actors.â Raizà  placed 6th. In the same issue's âÂÂReadersâ Choice: Male Film Stars of the 20th Century" he was ranked 7th. In the 2014 list of âÂÂAll Time Best Japanese Film Starsâ he was ranked 3rd in the list of male actors.
In a 2014 blog post, Ichikawa Ebizà  XI implied that the honorific name Ichikawa Raizà  was under his care, and thus it can be seen as having been returned to the Ichikawa house and line following Raizà Â's death.
Raizà  married Masako Nagata, adopted daughter of Masaichi Nagata, in a private wedding ceremony in 1962. She took his name, becoming Masako à Âta, and they had three children together. Raizà  had told Masako âÂÂI never want [my family] in the public eye,â when he was alive, and she continued to uphold his wishes after his death until 40 years had passed, when a special issue of Bungeishunjà « was published in 2009, featuring a memoir by Masako à Âta titled âÂÂA love letter to my husband, Ichikawa Raizo, 40 years later.âÂÂ
Data taken from âÂÂé·èµ, é·èµãÂÂèªÂãÂÂâ (Raizà Â, Raizà  ga Kataru)
The screenwriter Fuji Yahiro said of Raizà Â's manners, âÂÂRegardless of to whom he was speaking, he was always polite and proper, without arrogance or effusive emotion,â and that shone through in his acting style. According to Yahiro, âÂÂEven among the great number of jidaigeki actors, nobody else had his good manners â and I mean that in a good way â not a single other actor felt like a true bushi-like swordsman the way he did.âÂÂ
Kazuo Ikehiro said that Raizà Â's childhood cast a âÂÂshadow of heartlessnessâ over him, and because of that a âÂÂshadowed partâ and a âÂÂtrue background part" of his life were exposed. Moreover, they were not merely exposed, but thrust forward willfully, in Ikehiro's estimation. Kazuo Mori, the director with whom Raizà  produced the greatest number of films, said that Raizo carried âÂÂa human pain of which he didnâÂÂt speak to anyoneâ which he sublimated into each of his performances. In an interview between Mori and the film critic Sadao Yamane, the two agreed that Raizà  had a âÂÂrefreshing sorrowâ about him. Yamane explained this further, saying âÂÂwhile itâÂÂs true that he played a great many tragic roles, it wasnâÂÂt simply with a dark depression or gloom; he had a very crisp presentation. There wasnâÂÂt a single other actor who was equipped with both this sorrow and this cool crispness the way that Raizà  was.âÂÂ
Tadao Satà  said of Raizà Â's acting, that whether in jidaigeki or in modern dramas, âÂÂwhether the most miserable role or the most comedic, he acted with elegance and lent sophistication and grace to the final product.â Film critic Saburà  Kawamoto said of Raizà Â's acting, âÂÂeven when heâÂÂs here, heâÂÂs not here,â and clarified, âÂÂeven in this filthy world, there was a sense of purity about him, as though he were a glimpse into a faraway place.â âÂÂSome people might take my saying âÂÂsense of purityâ as some sort of posturing phrase, but it's not.âÂÂ
Two of Raizà ÂâÂÂs contemporaries, Sakata Tà Âjà «rà  IV and Nakamura Jakuemon IV, also attempted to change careers from kabuki to film, but failed to find success and returned to the kabuki stage. When asked his thoughts on this, Akinari Suzuki said that he felt that Raizà  had found success in film because he was not steeped in kabuki in his young childhood, and thus avoided being totally stained by it.
Raizà  usually looked plain, not eye-catching, but when his makeup was applied for a film shoot he would completely transform. Many people in the film industry spoke about this particular quirk.
According to Arashi Ichikawa, Raizà ÂâÂÂs essence was âÂÂhardness divided by simplicity,â and in stark contrast to other stars when playing their popular characters, Raizà Â's unmade-up simplicity âÂÂwould transform completely with makeup,â he said of this peculiar quirk. According to Akira Inoue, when given makeup Raizà Â's usual appearance would become completely different and beautiful. âÂÂMakeup would change him so suddenly, to the point where youâÂÂd say âÂÂwoah! WhoâÂÂs this?âÂÂâ he said. Tokuà  Tanaka said, âÂÂthis guy, with his disarming warmth and aura of purity; as soon as work began heâÂÂd transform into an actor, heâÂÂd stiffen his shoulders and become immediately commanding, steadfast, dignified and strikingly good-looking. For someone like me who knew his usual face, it was so surprising that it made my eyes pop open.âÂÂ
According to Inoue, at the time of his debut, Raizà Â, along with Shintarà  Katsu and Takeshi Hanayagi, received makeup instruction from the star Kazuo Hasegawa. The other two actors applied their makeup exactly as told, but Raizà  alone had a number of points where he made personal alterations to the makeup plan. In particular, Raizà Â's original designs could be seen in the makeup around his eyes and eyebrows. Furthermore, Raizà  carried out the most important points of his makeup application himself, and wouldn't allow anyone to see him while doing it. Inoue theorizes that the application of makeup was a crucial part of his process for immersing himself in a role, and thus he didn't want to be observed while doing so.
Yoshio Shirasaki, screenwriter of Kà Âshoku Ichidai Otoko (First-generation Lecher), said of Raizà Â's transformation that he normally looked like a company man, but âÂÂwhen he appeared on the screen heâÂÂd have undergone a complete change; and in the midst of all the light was this youthful star, fighting against emptiness and loneliness.â Inoue said that the reason that so many of Raizà Â's movie posters feature an image of him from behind with his head turned to face the camera was because many directors felt that this view of him best showed off his "intriguing emptiness".
Raizà Â, as written above, was the son of Ichikawa Kudanji III, a supporting actor by trade, and for a time was known as Ichikawa Enzà  II. Shintarà  Katsu was the son of Kineya Katsutà Âji, a nagauta performer and shamisen player, and for a time was known as Kineya Katsumaru II. Both Raizà  and Katsu signed on with Daiei in 1954, and joined the company in the same term. Both born in 1931, having made a hurried transition from kabuki to the new world of film, there were many similar circumstances about the pair of young actors.
As previously mentioned, Daiei's management intended from the start to position Raizà  as a successor to the star Kazuo Hasegawa, and it âÂÂproceeded smoothly along the tracks.â Tokuzà  Tanaka shared the opinion that Katsu, who was the first of the two to make his debut, was âÂÂlike a second helping of Hasegawaâ when he played an attractive young man in his white-faced film makeup; but as the director and supporting cast could hardly be described as first-rate, it was a long time before Katsu managed to become a real success.
It wasn't until the 1960s and the release and success of the Akumyà  and Zatoichi series that Katsu became widely discussed and surpassed Raizà  in earnings. Akinari Suzuki said of Katsu, âÂÂIt wasnâÂÂt until after shooting 70 or 80 films without a single real hit, that he finally became of use with the release of Akumyà Â.â According to Tokuzà  Tanaka, audience reception to Shiranui Kengyà Â, released in 1960, was particularly terrible, despite Katsu's highly acclaimed performance, to the point that Tanaka received complaints from movie theater owners about his constant use of Katsu in his films. Reflecting on the state of things in 1959, Katsu said âÂÂThe banzuke was totally different,â referring to the document listing sumo wrestlersâ ranks before a tournament. âÂÂWe already knew that Raizà  was an à Âzeki or a yokozuna. I still hadnâÂÂt entered the sanâÂÂyaku,â meaning that Raizà  could be considered to be among the very highest regarded stars, while Katsu was still a relative unknown.
Eventually the pair became treated as a unit, with the name âÂÂKATSURAISU,â taking Katsu's surname and the first half of Raizà Â's given name to create a name which happened to sound like the food dish âÂÂkatsu rice.â When the two appeared on movie posters and in films together under this slogan, they were often made to appear in contrast to one another in their appearance and style, and it was widely believed that there was a strong rivalry between them. However, their usage of friendly nicknames like âÂÂRai-chanâ and âÂÂKatchanâ for each other indicates that their relationship certainly wasn't bad, and in fact might even have been quite friendly. In fact, Raizà  had a close friendship with Katsu's wife, Tamao Nakamura, from childhood, as her father, Nakamura Kanjirà  II, was a Kansai-based kabuki actor like Raizà Â's adopted fathers.
The author Tomomi Muramatsu indicated that for Raizo, who had âÂÂworriedly spent his days in the world of kabuki, which is so dominated by lineage and ceremony, without ever receiving a large role,â and Katsu, whose father had been involved in the backstage world of kabuki, shared âÂÂthe same complex, this large problem to be solved,â and that they were both equipped with âÂÂa similar factor which served as a sort of energy sourceâ for them.
The filmography of Ichikawa Raizà  includes 158 films:
(1950s is complete)
(1960s incomplete)