Plump, fierce-looking actor who often played tough guy roles, such as yakuza or ronin. He dropped out of Senshu University and joined NHK’s theater company. After the war he appeared in films for nearly all of the major studios, including Toho, Daiei, Toei, and Nikkatsu. He had supporting roles in high-profile films like Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), Masaki Kobayashi’s Hara-Kiri (1962), Hideo Gosha’s Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), and the 9th Zatoichi film Adventures of Zatoichi (1964).

He is best known to sci-fi fans as the smug, deadpan general at the emergency meeting to deal with King Ghidorah in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).