Eijirō Tōno

At 86 years old, Eijirō Tōno physical status not available right now. We will update Eijirō Tōno's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Through the 1930s, Tōno appeared in almost all of the New Tsukiji Theatre Group's productions, receiving favourable reviews. In particular, his performances as Heizō in Earth (土: Tsuchi), Yugorō in The Composition-writing Classroom （綴方教室: Tsuzurikata kyōshitsu） and the Gravedigger in Hamlet established his reputation as an actor. He also came to play an important part in the management of the troupe. In 1936, he made his film debut in Older Brother, Younger Sister （兄いもうと: Ani imōto）. In 1938 he appeared in Teinosuke Kinugasa's Kuroda seichū roku （黒田誠忠録）and subsequently had roles in pictures for the Shōchiku, Nikkatsu and Tōhō studios. Up to this point, he was credited under his stage name, 'Katsuji Honjō'.

In August 1940 the New Tsukiji Theatre Group was forcibly disbanded. From this time on, he was credited as 'Tōno Eijirō'. In 1943 he appeared in Keisuke Kinoshita's debut film Port of Flowers （花咲く港: Hana saku minato）. In 1944 Tōno, Eitarō Ozawa, Koreya Senda, Sugisaku Aoyama, Chieko Higashiyama and others formed the Actors' Theatre Haiyuza. During the last year of the Pacific War, he toured Japan under the auspices of the Japan Peripatetic Drama League （日本移動演劇連盟）, an officially-sponsored body whose remit was to raise morale, and therefore productivity, by bringing drama to factories, mines, farming communities and fishing villages.

After the war ended in August 1945, Tōno returned to the Actors' Theatre as one of its central figures, both actor and administrator. Between the end of the war and 1990 he also played supporting roles in well over 200 films. Notable among them were seven films for Akira Kurosawa, including Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, four for Yasujirō Ozu, including Tokyo Story and An Autumn Afternoon, and nine for Keisuke Kinoshita, including Marriage （結婚: Kekkon） and The Ballad of Narayama.

He also voiced Doc in the 1958 Japanese dub of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film).

The role for which he is perhaps best remembered in Japan, however, is that of the title character in the hugely popular TV jidaigeki Mito Kōmon, in which the historical Tokugawa Mitsukuni, retired daimyō of the Mito Domain, roams the country in the guise of a retired merchant, Mitsuemon, righting wrongs and correcting injustice with the aid of two samurai retainers. Tōno played the role in 381 episodes between 1969 and 1983. (The series continued through 2011, with four further actors playing Mitsuemon.)

Tōno died of heart failure on 8 September 1994, nine days before his 87th birthday. He was 86 years old.

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