Emerging from his studies at Kanto Gakuin University, he entered the Japanese film industry after Yujiro Ishihara, a neighbor, recruited him for Nikkatsu. Debuting as Ishihara’s younger sibling in the 1958 drama A Slope in the Sun, the studio promoted him as a member of the so-called “Bad Trio” alongside Akira Kobayashi and Tadao Sawamoto. He quickly became associated with avant-garde directors, a…
