Kôdô Kuninori

Born Tanikawa Saichirô in Hyogo Prefecture, Kôdô Kuninori began his acting career in 1901 on the shinpa stage. Before World War II, he worked at Teikoku Kinema and with Ichikawa Utaemon's productions before officially joining Toho in 1939.

Due to his advanced age by the time Japanese cinema entered its golden age, Kôdô was frequently type-cast in senior roles. He famously played the village elder in three major films released in short succession: the patriarch Gisaku in Kurosawa Akira's Seven Samurai (1954), the Ôdo Island elder in Godzilla (1954), and the village chief in Half Human (1955).

His professional name was often misread as "Kôdô Kokuten," and he was allegedly addressed as "Kokuten" on set by colleagues. He was known to respond to such mispronunciations with a forceful correction: "KUNINORI!"

Kôdô passed away in 1960.