Eijirō Tōno

Eijirō Tōno (東野英治郎, Tōno Eijirō^?, 17 September 1907 – 8 September 1994) was a Japanese actor who, in a career lasting more than 50 years, appeared in over 400 television shows, nearly 250 films and numerous stage productions. He is best known in the west for his roles in films by Akira Kurosawa, such as Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961), and Yasujiro Ozu, such as Tokyo Story (1953) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962). He also appeared in Kill! by Kihachi Okamoto and Tora! Tora! Tora!, a depiction of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His final film was Juzo Itami's A-ge-man (Tales of a Golden Geisha) in 1990. Tōno also starred as the title character in the long-running television jidaigeki series Mito Kōmon from 1969 to 1983. In the early years of his career he acted under the name of Katsuji Honjo (本庄克二).

Eijirō Tōno was born on 17 September 1907 in Tomioka City, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, the son of a sake brewer. He attended Tomioka Middle School. After enrolling as a student in the Commerce Department of Meiji University he joined the left-wing Society for the Study of Social Science (社会科学研究会 : Shakai-kagaku kenkyukai ). This was politically dangerous, as the Peace Preservation Law of 1925 made members of any association whose object was the alteration of the kokutai (National Polity), or of the system of private property, liable to imprisonment for up to ten years. In 1931 he became a student on the proletarian drama course run by the Tsukiji Little Theatre (築地小劇場: Tsukiji shogekijo ). He made his stage debut in the Tokyo Left-wing Theatre (東京左翼劇場: Tokyo sayoku gekijo ) production of The Mount Osore Tunnel (恐山トンネル: Osoreyama tonneru)by Jūrō Miyoshi. Having completed the proletarian drama course, he joined the New Tsukiji Theatre Group and took the stage name Katsuji Honjō (本庄克二).

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