BIG IN JAPAN
Yujiro Ishihara
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| Courtesy of Kyodo Photo Service |
July 3, 1999 saw an
unprecedented sight at Sojiji Temple, Yokohama, when about 170,000 fans brought flowers
and other offerings to honor the memory of Yujiro Ishihara, actor, singer, and late
brother of current Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara. It was the thirteenth year after his
death, an important time in the Buddhist funeral calendar, and each attendee was given a
bottle of Ishihara' favorite wine as a gesture of respect. The massive turnout was a sign
of his enduring popularity, making him a Japanese icon with the pulling power of Dean,
Elvis and Brando all rolled together.
The comparison with Elvis is one which holds fairly true. Both embodied youthful rebellion
at a time of great social change, and came to reject it in their later, more conservative,
years. Both combined the careers of song and film, with mixed results. Both died premature
deaths, hastened by over-indulgence and a cheerful disregard for their own health.
What they don't share is a privileged background. The Ishihara brothers were born in
Otaru, Hokkaido, the two sons of a senior shipping industry executive. Shintaro graduated
from Hitotsubashi University and went on to find initial success as a novelist, while
Yujiro graduated from Keio and chose a career in acting. Fortune favored them both when
Shintaro's novel, "Taiyo no Kisetsu" (Seasons in the Sun), became a bestseller,
and Yujiro was chosen to star in the film version. The novel and the film became the first
chronicling of the "Sun Tribe," as the media dubbed the wave of disaffected
youth, teenagers who shocked their elders with their apparent lack of morals and
hedonistic tendencies. This was to launch him into a career portraying first romantic
leads and, later, violent but honor-obeying tough guys.
Ironically, Ishihara was to base his later career on his good looks and upright morals,
mellowing as he and his fans grew older, as postwar Japan came increasingly to be viewed
through a haze of chauvinistic nostalgia. His taste for high living led to health problems
over the years, and the increasingly corpulent Ishihara found it less easy to portray the
Hard Man parts convincingly.
He settled more comfortably into his career as a singer, giving tearful renditions of enka
ballads (the Japanese take on Elvis' Gospel period). He reluctantly decided to appear on
TV, and starred in two cop dramas, Seibu Keisatsu (Western Cops), and (along with
up-and-coming Yusaku Matsuda) Taiyo ni Hoero (Howl at the Sun). The shows did
well at the time, but upon repeat viewing, the ludicrous plots and scenery-chewing acting
make them too much like parodies.
His checkered career contained not just films and albums, but also a deep love of sailing,
an appearance in the Hollywood film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines,
and several intriguing scandals. He succumbed, finally, to liver cancer at the age of 52.
In July 1991, the Ishihara Yujiro Memorial Museum was opened in his Hokkaido hometown,
showing his films and TV shows to a constant stream of visitors.
The fans came to mourn the death of an individual; perhaps, also, they came to say goodbye
to an idealized, less complicated age in Japanese history.
John Paul Catton |
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