Late Actor Tatsuya Nakadai Discussed His Approach to Nogi in 203 High Ground and His Conflicts Playing Shingen in Kagemusha

“I don’t want to play him like a typical military man. He was a warrior, but at the same time a man of letters.”

Tatsuya Nakadai, an actor who appeared in numerous films, stage productions, and dramas; who founded the private acting school Mumeijuku and trained actors such as Kōji Yakusho (69); and who throughout his life remained staunchly anti-war, passed away from pneumonia on November 8 at the age of 92.

In September 1979, when Nakadai starred as Army General Nogi Maresuke in Toshio Masuda’s film The Battle of Port Arthur (203 Kōchi), I had the opportunity to interview him on location at Izu Ōshima.

The Battle of Port Arthur is a large-scale war film depicting the Japanese army’s assault on Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) under General Nogi’s command. The intense battle scenes were filmed on Izu Ōshima.

Nakadai, dressed in uniform with a white beard as part of his transformation into General Nogi, said:

“It used to take two hours to do the makeup, but now we can get it done in an hour. Fortunately, we had photographs of General Nogi from every possible angle.”

He continued:

“The story spans about a year, so there’s no major age change, but the character goes through three distinct stages. There’s Nogi in his usual calm, steady state; Nogi pushed to the limits of war; and finally Nogi trembling uncontrollably as he reports victory to His Majesty the Emperor (the Meiji Emperor), thinking of the soldiers who died. I’m planning to use three different types of beard for those stages as well.”

His words revealed his characteristic sensitivity in analyzing a role and his thorough commitment to character creation.

“Many seniors have played Nogi before, so I don’t want to portray him as a typical military man. He was a warrior, but also a man of culture. I’m making him a bit stooped, trying to make him look smaller, less like a soldier. Overall, I’m portraying him as a quiet-natured person.”

Thus he described his own unique interpretation of General Nogi.

Just before starting work on The Battle of Port Arthur, filming had also begun for Kagemusha (directed by Akira Kurosawa), in which Nakadai was to play two roles: Takeda Shingen and his double. The part had originally been given to Shintarō Katsu, but shortly after filming began in June of that year, he clashed with Kurosawa and withdrew from the project. Nakadai was urgently brought in as a replacement.

“We shot six major scenes. They’re the opening scenes before the title in Kagemusha. Shingen, his double, and his younger brother Takeda Nobukado (played by Tsutomu Yamazaki) appear together—three men who look alike, in a very mysterious sequence. We also shot the scene where Shingen holds a drinking party with his concubines in the Takeda residence.”

Nakadai revealed this with some detail.

In 1952, Nakadai entered the Haiyūza acting school. His film debut came when he appeared as an uncredited, non-speaking extra in Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954).

He later played the main antagonist opposite Toshirō Mifune’s Sanjūrō Kuwabatake in Yojimbo (1961). In the semi-sequel Sanjūrō (1962), he portrayed Hanbei Muroto, who engages in a fierce final duel with Mifune’s character. Kagemusha was his first Kurosawa film in 16 years, since High and Low (1963).

A firm stance against war

“It felt like (Director Kurosawa) hadn’t lost any of his vigor. Once filming began, all traces of Shintarō Katsu’s image completely disappeared. I knew I couldn’t just be a simple stand-in. I wanted to create something that only Nakadai could do.”

His passionate determination left a strong impression.

Nakadai delivered an outstanding performance as both Takeda Shingen and his double. Kagemusha went on to win the Palme d’Or, the highest prize at the 33rd Cannes Film Festival. It also won Best Film at the 23rd Blue Ribbon Awards, with Nakadai receiving Best Actor and Daisuke Ryū—who played Oda Nobunaga—winning Best Newcomer. With a distribution income of 2.7 billion yen, it became the top-grossing Japanese film of 1980, achieving major commercial success as well.

Nakadai was also known for maintaining a lifelong anti-war stance, rooted in the horrific experience of running for his life during the Tokyo firebombing at around age 12. Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition (1959–61), the film series that made Nakadai a star, is considered a monument of anti-war cinema. The six-part work was shown two parts at a time, with a total running time of nine hours and 31 minutes.

The story begins in 1943 with the protagonist Kaji—played by Nakadai—moving with his wife Michiko (Michiyo Aratama) to a mining site in Manchuria as an employee of the South Manchuria Steel Company. There, he witnesses the inhumane mistreatment of Chinese laborers by Japanese military administrators and pleads for humanitarian reform, only to face military backlash and repression.

Later, Kaji is drafted into the Kwantung Army, where he suffers under irrationality and violence, and with the Soviet Union’s entry into the war, he becomes a Soviet prisoner of war. In the POW camp, he faces brutality and betrayal from fellow Japanese soldiers, eventually escaping and wandering the harsh Siberian wilderness. The film powerfully portrays his harrowing fate as he refuses to assimilate into the war mentality, striving to uphold justice, human dignity, and humanism to the very end.

In his autobiographical essay collection Yakusha MEMO 1955–1980 (Koike Shoin), Nakadai wrote:

“I received many gifts from Kaji. There is only one way to repay them: to steadfastly reject war and to convey human dignity to as many people as possible through my portrayal of Kaji.”

The themes of The Human Condition remain timeless. Eighty years after the war, with conflict persisting around the world and tensions rising between Japan and China over issues such as collective self-defense, the film’s message of anti-war humanism has, if anything, grown even more significant.

Director Kobayashi praised Nakadai as:

“Truly a genius—an actor who transcends the bounds of being Japanese.”

He continued to cast Nakadai in film after film, including Harakiri (1962), Kwaidan (1964), and Samurai Rebellion(1967). Many other master directors also sought him out, such as Akira Kurosawa, Shirō Toyoda (Yotsuya Kaidan, 1965), Kihachi Okamoto (The Sword of Doom, 1966), Satsuo Yamamoto (The Family, 1974; Kinkanshoku, 1975), and Kon Ichikawa (I Am a Cat, 1975).

Dedicated to the craft of acting, working actively until the end, captivating audiences across countless films, stage productions, and dramas, and remaining unwaveringly anti-war—Tatsuya Nakadai will be remembered as a great actor who left a profound legacy.