Shirôgorô Sawamura

Biography

Sawamura was born in 1877 in Tokyo. He studied under Takasagoya Fukusuke, making his first stage performance in the Osaka Nakaza Theater. In 1911 he was promoted to the ranks of the named actors, and in 1914 he succeeded to the name of Sawamura Shirogoro V at the Teikoku Theater. That same year he was invited to join Tenkatsu along with Ichikawa Enjuro. The name of both of these actors began to spread after their appearance in the 1916 film Ninjutsu Sanyushi. They went on to appear together in films such as Saiyuki (Diary of a Westward Journey) and Jitsuroku Hagi, and it is said that of the two, Sawamura Shirogoro was slightly more popular with the public due to his oval face and his flashiness. Sawamura became an idol of the youth during his Tenkatsu and Nikkatsu days. In the autumn of 1921 Sawamura joined Shochiku, where he starred in Kanzaki Kanninbukuro. After Ichikawa Enjuro and the rest returned to Kokukatsu, they parted ways, and the line up was never seen again. Most of the films in which Sawamura starred were directed by Yoshino Jiro, and some of the later ones by Mori Kaname and Kako Zanmu, but the film Nichiren Komachi was directed by and starred Sawamura himself. After a final performance in Kedanimura Rokusuke, Sawamura retired from acting, dying in 1932 from an illness. Sawamura Shirogoro was second only to Onoe Matsunosuke as a leading star of the early days of the early days of Japanese cinema.