Jirô Osaragi(1897-1973)
- Writer
After graduating from Tokyo University, he wrote his most popular
novels, the historical "Kurama Tengu" (Black-Masked Reformer Devil
Kurama), "Teru Hi Kumoru Hi" (Sunny Days, Cloudy Days), and "Ako Roshi"
(Loyal Retainers of Ako) [a new version of the "Chushingura" (47 Ronin)
story], and he was writing one last historical novel when he died at
the age of 75. "Kurama Tengu" was the first Osaragi novel made into a
movie, in 1924. From then till 1965 there have been almost 50 films and
a TV series (1990) about the character. Although Kurama has been played
by many film stars, as Matsunosuke Onoe (1925), Kotaro Bando (1932),
Ken'ichi Enomoto (1939), Chiyonosuke Azuma (1956-59) or Raizo Ichikawa
(the last one, 1965), the Japanese people always identifies him with
Kanjuro Arashi, who played the character almost 40 times between 1927
and 1956. But without counting the Kurama stories, there are more than
a hundred film adaptacions of Osaragi novels. In addition, Osaragi
wrote his only screenplay adaptation of his "Ako Roshi" (of which
several TV series were made [1964] included) entitled "48 famous men"
in 1952.
