The Life of Chikuzan
Synopsis
After over 50 years of wandering up and down Japan, finally in the 1970s, the rough-hewn blind shamisen player and folk-song collector named Takahashi Chikuzan became a musical sensation. This biographical drama chronicles his wanderings and his life, with a particular focus on his humble beginnings as a peasant on a remote and arid island.
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 15
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Shot by Kiyomi KurodaScored by Hikaru Hayashi
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Cast & Crew
15 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Taiji Tonoyama
as Sakubei
Hideo Kanze
as Tokura Jutaro
Takuzo Kawatani
as Senta the thief
Hosei Komatsu
as Goto Komaemon
Ryuzo Hayashi
as Chikuzan Takahashi
Nobuko Otowa
as Toyo, Mother
Mitsuko Baisho
as Fuji, Chikuzan's 2nd wife
Chikuzan Takahashi
as Self
Kei Sato
as Narita Unchiku
Rokko Toura
as Hikoichi the candy seller
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
2Other crew
2Parents Guide
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