Origins & Early Life

Rentarō Mikuni (Japanese: 三國連太郎, Hepburn: Mikuni Rentarō; 20 January 1923 – 14 April 2013) was a Japanese actor and film director. He starred in several films of Keisuke Kinoshita, Mikio Naruse, Tadashi Imai, Shōhei Imamura, Tomu Uchida and many others. Mikuni received numerous awards for his performances and was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival for his film Shinran: Path to Purity, which he wrote and directed. Mikuni's parents met in October 1922 at the port of Numazu.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

His mother had been a maid in Kure, but had been laid off and was on her way home. His father was working in Ōta, Gunma, and was on his way home. They hit it off so well that they did not return to their parents' home, but got married and began to live at Mikuni's father's residence. Mikuni was born there in January 1923. His real name was Masao Sato (佐藤政雄, Satō Masao).

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Although Mikuni was his father's biological son on the family register, he said he was probably the child of another man and that his father was adoptive father. The reason for this was that the time between the meeting of the parents and the birth was too short. When he was seven months old, the family moved to...

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