A star actor who remained active until the very end A drinking party in the rehearsal hall with my master, holding a one-shō sake bottleToru Masuoka (Actor) On the morning of November 11, I received a phone call from Mr. Nakadai’s daughter and learned of his passing. That afternoon, I met Mr. Nakadai, who had been laid to rest in the family’s Buddhist altar room. I expressed the gratitude and thanks for the guidance I had received since joining the “Mumeijuku” for 45 years. When I joined “Mumeijuku” in 1980, it was still far from being a proper theater troupe. Young people who knew nothing wandered around Nakadai-san. Perhaps because of that, Nakadai-san often gave me basic advice such as, “Keep to the scheduled time” and “Always greet properly.” When film work came his way, Nakadai-san probably asked the production side, “It’s fine if it’s a role without lines, but let my young ones appear.” Thanks to that, I was able to appear in films such as Kiryuuin Hanako no Shougai released in 1982. I often drank together with Nakadai-san and his wife. In the evenings, Nakadai-san would appear at the rehearsal hall holding a pair of one-shō sake bottles in his hands, and naturally a drinking party would begin. When the last train approached and everyone tried to leave, he would say things like, “What? You’re leaving already?” Sometimes the party would continue until morning. In next year’s stage production of Daichi no Ko, I will be performing the same role that Nakadai-san had played in the NHK drama. If it were possible, I would have loved for Nakadai-san to watch it. From “FRIDAY”, combined issue December 19 & 26, 2025