One of Ken Takakura’s team members confesses for the first time, “The distrust I had for my adopted daughter.

After the house where I lived with Chiemi Eri burned down, I went to a ceremony to raise the roof of the house that had been rebuilt. It must have been more than 50 years ago. Ken had divorced Chiemi and was living in Nogizaka. When he rebuilt the house in Seta, he had no intention of living there and was planning to rent the entire house to foreigners.

There is a friend of Ken Takakura who told me this. This is Yukio Katayama (pseudonym), one of the members of “Team Takakura” who always worked with Takakura before his death.

Team Takakura includes actor Nenji Kobayashi, his cousin Yasushi Hidaka, who was the managing director of Takakura Promotion, the owner of the barbershop at Hotel Pacific Tokyo that Takakura went to every day, and the engineer who managed his favorite car. Five to six people were always around Takakura to take care of him.

Takakura’s house in Seta, Setagaya Ward, burned down in January 1970, and in October 1981, 11 years and 10 months later, it was rebuilt as a chic Western-style building with three ABCs, including the main building. In October 1981, the house was rebuilt as a chic Western-style building with three ABCs, including the main building. Katayama talked about the house.

However, Ken changed his mind in the middle of the construction. He said, ‘I’m going to live there. Even though the house was almost finished, we had to change the design over and over again, which made the builders cry.

Of the three buildings, only building C has been rented out to foreigners, but I guess he wanted to live in the place that reminded him of Chiemi Eri. The grave of the woman who died in February 1982 is located at Hotokuji Temple, less than a five-minute walk away, where Takakura used to kneel before the grave late at night in secret. However, after her death, the Takakura residence was demolished and replaced with a new dome-shaped house with a completely different image.

This year marks the seventh anniversary of the death of Ken Takakura, who passed away on November 10, 2002. Following the seventh anniversary of his death last year, this year’s memorial service was held at his family temple, Shokakuji Temple, in his hometown of Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture, by his sister Toshiko Mori and other family members. Toshiko said.

I was surprised this year. I received a phone call from the temple at 8:00 a.m. saying that fans had already arrived to pay their respects, so I rushed to the temple. I rushed to the temple and found that people from Kyushu and even Hakodate were there, saying they were glad to have a place to hold hands. I am so grateful for my fans. I thanked them once again from the bottom of my heart.

On the anniversary of his death this year, there was no end to the number of fans who visited his grave until nightfall. One of the fans suddenly started singing the theme song of the movie “Abashiri Bangaichi,” while another fan sang “Tsushima Sakka Uta,” a song inspired by his hometown in Kyushu. The song became a huge chorus. However, there was no sign of the mysterious adopted daughter, Takashi Oda, who took care of Takakura himself at the end.

As is well known, when Takakura breathed his last, his adopted daughter, Takashi, hurriedly cremated his body without informing his relatives. Upon receiving the news from her, only five people, including Yoshishige Shimatani, the president of Toho, rushed to the Daiyobata Saiban Shrine in Shibuya Ward. Her relatives, including her own sister, only learned of the existence of the adopted daughter after her death, and to this day have never met her.

She told her relatives that she had scattered her ashes and tore down the grave in Kamakura Cemetery that Takakura had built before her death. Because of this, fans have been baffled by the fact that they do not know where to lay their hands on Takakura on the anniversary of his death. But now, after eight years, they finally know where the remains are.

The fans who came to the temple did not know about the temple’s tomb until now. Before the anniversary of his death, I was interviewed by Kyodo News, and they wrote that his remains were at the temple, so I think many people from all over Japan came to the temple.

(Toshiko’s story) At the funeral home, the adopted daughter divided Takakura’s remains among the film industry. One person who thought it was inexplicable delivered the remains to Toshiko, and they were placed in the grave at Shogakuji Temple on the third anniversary of his death. In the temple, there is a monument inscribed with the name “Kansei” along with the tombs of the generations of the Oda family, the family name of Ken Takakura. This is the only place where Takakura’s remains are kept.

There is someone I’d like to introduce you to.

Since the death of Ken Takakura, fans have been seeking a place to pay their respects to the deceased. Hidaka, the former managing director of Takakura Productions, built a tombstone in Kamakura without asking other relatives, but of course there were no remains there. Katayama, a former member of Team Takakura, told us the following story.

Katayama, a member of Team Takakura, revealed the following episode: “Xu Fuzo, the owner of a Chinese restaurant who boasted that he was close to Ken, built an altar soon after Ken’s death. Among the many Chinese restaurants in Tokyo, the owner of Fulihua in Azabu Juban, which is often used by celebrities, had an altar in his home and invited his customers to visit it. One of the people who managed Ken’s car once took Shigeo Nagashima with him.

Takakura and Nagashima were close friends from their youth. Takakura and Nagashima had been close friends since they were young, and they had made their annual New Year’s visit to Naritasan Shinshoji Temple together. That’s probably why Nagashima paid a visit to the altar even though he was crippled by a stroke. Takakura, who is also popular in China, often visited China for film campaigns and location shooting, and Xu was said to have been his guide. Katayama added a few words.

Katayama added, “In a way, Ken was quite fond of Tomizo. When Fu Li Hua opened, he even gave him the Jaguar that Ken had used as a gift. Tomizo mistook the gas pedal and brake of that car and hit a telephone pole and immediately wrecked it. Tomizo has been promoting his friendship with Ken like that, so I guess Mr. Nagashima paid him a visit.”

When I asked him for an interview, he stubbornly said, “We were not that close, so we refuse to do an interview.

Her adoptive daughter, Takashi, was left with Takakura’s legacy all to herself. Until now, the members of Team Takakura had been tight-lipped about her. However, Katayama revealed that he had met his adopted daughter many times.

I think many people don’t know about her,” he said. I think there are many people who don’t know about her. It seems that Ken and the woman got to know each other more than 20 years ago, but I think they started living together about 10 years before he died. In the Seta mansion, which has three buildings (ABC, A, B and C), Ken-san lived in the main building of A and rented C to a foreigner. When that house became vacant, she moved in. At this time, for some reason, the nameplate was ‘Hidaka. That’s where she was living.

Why was the name on the front door of Building C Hidaka? Hidaka, the former managing director of Takakura Productions, played a role in this. Hidaka was introduced to Takakura in 1997, the year after Takakura met Takashi, and was asked to protect the secret between the two. He was asked by Takakura to keep their relationship a secret. The nameplate was designed so that if the existence of the woman living in the mansion became known, he would be able to say that she was a relative.

Hidaka was the guarantor and signed and sealed the papers when Takaki was adopted in May of ’13. Katayama was unaware of the adoption itself. He says that he did not know about the adoption, but Takakura introduced him to Takaki at Seta’s house.

One day in ’02, Ken called me over to his house and said, ‘There’s someone I want to introduce you to. After that, the nameplate suddenly changed to Hidaka. Originally, Ken-san’s house did not have a nameplate, and around the same time, Ken-san asked me to put one on the front door as well, so I remember it well. In other words, she must have started living in building C in Seta around this time. She also told me that she had known Ken for about 17 years before he passed away.

From what I’ve heard, it seems that they met in 1996, and she started living in the other building six years later, in 2002. Since then, Katayama has been invited to her house on New Year’s Day and has eaten Osechi (New Year’s Day) dishes prepared by her. He also muttered, “You two are very close.

The two of you were very close. Ken-san called me “Chibi” at first, and then “Taka” later. Ken-san even asked me to install a car navigation system in her brother’s car, so I did. Of course, he told me not to tell anyone about it. However, Chiemi’s grave is very close by, and there was no talk of them getting married or adopting a child, and I had no idea. I couldn’t even imagine it.

During this time, Ken Takakura also had relationships with several women, all of which were discovered posthumously. Only a few of the members of Team Takakura knew about Takaki’s existence. On the other hand, the team members had dinner with Takakura every day. But for some reason, this stopped two or three years before his death. Katayama said.

After the earthquake in Tohoku, Ken said, ‘Let’s not do that anymore,’ and he didn’t invite us to his house anymore, so we didn’t have many opportunities to meet.

Perhaps out of fear that his relationship with Takakura would be discovered, Katayama’s behavior started to become strange. In fact, Katayama accompanied Takakura on his annual visit to Zenkoji Temple on February 2, 2002, nine months before he passed away.

It was my last visit to Zenkoji. It was my last visit to Zenkoji Temple,” she said. “Some people wrote that I unveiled you at that time, but that was a lie. Ken drove the car on the way to the temple, and I drove the car on the way back because he said he didn’t want to go back because it would be dark, as usual. After that, we had planned to take a boat (cruiser) ride in April, but he called me in a rattled voice saying, ‘I’m on my way back from the hospital and my body is not feeling well, so I’m not going to do it. That was the last time I heard his voice.

That was after he had been admitted to Keio Hospital for tests. He was found to have malignant lymphoma, but Katayama was not informed of this. A little over six months later, Ken Takakura passed away suddenly. Another member of Team Takakura said that shortly after his death, something inexplicable happened.

In Seta’s house, there was an altar that Ken worshipped at every day. In Seta’s house, there was an altar where Ken worshipped every day, and there was a picture of him being held by his mother and father. After he passed away, the entire altar disappeared and became a wall. Ken-san went to Hawaii with me, and to Shuzenji. Whenever we went on a trip, I always put the photo and incense sticks in my bag and lined them up at the lodgings where we went to pray. How could it be that the altar with the precious photo of her parents is gone?

She kept a diary even when she was traveling. She kept a diary of her travels, but it has not been reported at all since her death. She also said, “Where is the diary?

Where did the diary go? I wonder where the diary went, and why it hasn’t turned up yet. And the suicide note, too. She was driving her car fine when she visited Zenkoji Temple, so she probably didn’t think she was going to die, but how could she not have her diary? I wonder if she threw it away.”

After Ken Takakura’s death, his precious memories have been lost one after another. The disappointment of his fans who have laid their hands on his remains has yet to be lifted.

(Titles omitted in the text)

From the December 3, 2021 issue of FRIDAY