Thomas Kurihara
Japanese actor and film director
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Thomas Kurihara (トーマス・栗原, Thomas Kurihara; 24 January 1885 – 8 September 1926) was a Japanese actor and film director.[1]
Life
Thomas Kurihara, birth name Kisaburō Kurihara (栗原喜三郎), was born in Hadano, Kanagawa.[2] Kurihara's father was a wood trader, but he failed in business. Kurihara went to United States and enrolled in a school for film actors in 1912. After graduation, working as an extra, he entered director Thomas Ince's Oriental Production Company, which Ince founded to feature Asian actors.[3] There he worked with Sesshu Hayakawa, Tsuruko Aoki, Goro Kino and many other Japanese actors. Performance of Takeo in The Wrath of the Gods (1914) made him famous.[4]
Hoping to work film industry in his country, Kurihara went back to Japan in 1918, and entered Taishō Katsuei in April 1920, a film production which Ryozō Asano of Asano zaibatsu (Kurihara's acquaintance) founded at Yamashita-cho, Yokohama.[5] There he started his career as film director. His first work at Taisho was Amateur Club (1920), which Junichiro Tanizaki joined as a film writer.[6]
Until Taisho Katsudo Eiga stopped to making films in 1922 Kurihara made more than 30 films. He also taught many film directors and actors: Tomu Uchida, Kintaro Inoue and Buntaro Futagawa; Tokihiko Okada, Michiko Hayama, Ureo Egawa and Atsushi Watanabe.
Kurihara died on 8 September 1926 at the age of 41.
Filmography
as an actor
- Gokurakutô no joô (The Queen of Paradice Island) (1925)
- Zoku Amateur Club (Amateur Club: part two) (1923)
- Shitakiri Suzume (Sparrow's Inn) (1923)
- Kurueru Akuma (A Crazy Devil) (1921)
- Jasei no in (A Serpent's Lust) (1921)
- The Miracle Man uncredited
- The Bravest Way (1918)
- The Honor of His House (1918)
- The Curse of Iku (1918)
- The Hopper (1918)
- Her American Husband (1918)
- Wolves of the Rail (1918)
- Hashimura Togo (1917)
- The Square Deal Man (1917)
- The Devil's Double (1916 film)
- The Soul of Kura San (1916)
- The Forbidden Adventure (1915)
- Over Secret Wires (1915)
- The Grudge (1915)
- The Bride of Guadaloupe (1915)
- In the Sage Brush Country (1914)
- The Fortunes of War (1914)
- The Vigil (1914)
- The Typhoon (1914)
- A Tale of the Northwest Mounted (1914)
- The Curse of Caste (1914)
- The Wrath of the Gods (1914)
- Shorty's Trip to Mexico (1914)
- The Ambassador's Envoy (1914)
- The Courtship of O San (1914)
- O Mimi San (1914)
as a film director
- Haru wa kaeru (Spring comes back) (1924)
- Zoku Amateur Club (1923)
- Yume no tabiji (The Dream of Orient) (1921)
- Narikin (Sanji Goto - The Story of Japanese Enoch Arden) (1921)
- Kashu Daigaku Yakyudan Raicho-sen Jokkyo (Report on the Friendly Match versus California State College Baseball Team) (1921)
- Kisen Houshi (Kisen the Monk) (1921)
- Shuppan mae kai shimon (1921)
- Beikoku Kyokugei Hikou (1921)
- Hinamatsuri no yoru (Night of Doll Festival) (1921)
- Kami no Setsuri (The Providence of God) (1921)
- Goman-en (Fifty thousand Yen) (1921)
- Doro no Sainan (1921)
- Ganjitsu no Satsuei (Shots on New Year Day) (1921)
- Jasei no in (A Serpent's Lust) (1921)
- Meiji Junguu Chinzasai (1920)
- Goto Sanji (1920)
- Katsushika Sunako (1920)
- Utsukushiki Nippon (Japan: the beautiful) (1920)
- Amateur Club (1920)
as a film writer
- Haru wa kaeru (1924)
- Yume no tabiji (The Dream of Orient) (1921)
External links
- Thomas Kurihara at IMDb
- Kurihara Thomas's JMDb listing (Japanese)]