Shôtarô Ikenami(1923-1990)
- Writer
Before World War II, he worked as a stock broker in a Tokyo company.
Later, he was a pupil of the Shin Hasegawa theatre script studio, and
finally he decided to become a novelist. He was a very prolific writer,
and in the 1950s, some of his novels and stories begin to be converted
into movies, the first of them being "Fighting Spirit Tear of
Nayoroiwa" in 1956. His most important work was the novel-river "Sanada
Taihei-ki", firstly serialized from 1974 to 1983 in the "Weekly Asahi".
Later, he created the "Ikenami Shotaro Sanada Taiheiki Museum," located
in the center of Ueda City, which exhibits books and manuscripts
related to Ikenami. But the most famous novel by Ikenami without any
doubt was "Koroshi no yonin" (Master Assassin), better known as
"Hissatsu shikake-nin". Firstly, it was converted into an ABC TV series
from 1972, directed by, amongst others, Kinji Fukasaku and Kenji Misumi and
starring Ken Ogata as acupunturist/professional killer of XVIII Century
Baian Fujieda. Jirō Tamiya and Ogata himself played the three films based
on the TV series (1973-74). In 1981, Yasuo Furuhata directed a new film
version of the novel, "Shikake-Nin Baian" (Professional Killer Baian),
starring Kinnosuke Nakamura and 'Juzo Itami'qv). And from 1982, Fuji TV made a
long new TV series about the novel, starring Keiju Kobayashi (and later
Ken Watanabe) as Baian. Ikenami only wrote an original script to be made
into a film, in 1960.
