Akitake Kōno

Acting

Akitake Kōno

Born 1911-10-08 · Nagasaki, Japan

Akitake Kōno (河野 秋武 Kōno Akitake, 8 October 1911 – 17 March 1978) was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than sixty films from 1943 to 1973. Kōno started acting with the Zenshinza theater troupe before joining the Toho studio in 1942. Mostly a character actor, he appeared in films by directors such as Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi as well on television.

Acting credits

Sansho the Bailiff poster
8.1

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho.

Sansho the Bailiff

1954

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love poster
8.1

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

1959

Snow Trail poster
7.0

Three bank robbers, Eijima, Nojiri, and Takasugi, flee the police and escape into the mountains. At an inn high in the Japanese Alps, Eijima and Nojiri encounter a young woman and her father, as well as Honda, a mountaineer. The inn folk do not realize their guests are wanted criminals and the visitors are treated with great kindness. Honda volunteers to lead them over the mountains, but Eijima's paranoia endangers all of them as they make the perilous trip.

Snow Trail

1947

Koga Manshion poster
NR

Kazuo Hasegawa's debut at Daiei.

Koga Manshion

1949

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two poster
6.0

A few years after his breakthrough, Sanshiro resumes his path to judo mastery—testing his discipline against an American prizefighter and later facing vengeful karate brothers. As rival schools and public spectacle push him toward violence, he must reconcile strength with restraint and the true spirit of his art.

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two

1945

治郎吉格子 poster
NR

Aboard a ship connecting Kyoto and Osaka, Osan was pickpocketed by a sham blind biwa player. A man who looked like a merchant retrieved the wallet for her. Osan was a woman being sold off for the sake of her yakuza-like brother, Nin'kichi. The man in the guise of a merchant turned out to be the Rat Thief, Jirokichi, the infamous thief of Edo. Due to this chance encounter, the two ended up staying at the same hot spring inn. However, one morning, as Jirokichi was about to leave alone, Osan, with the intuition of a smitten woman, confessed she knew he was the famed Rat Thief.

治郎吉格子

1952

No Regrets for Our Youth poster
6.8

After her anti-fascist professor father is dismissed, Yukie navigates love, political repression, and wartime upheaval—ultimately forging her own path in pre- and post-WWII Japan.

No Regrets for Our Youth

1946

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Coming Up of Kodokan

1953

Castle of Flames poster
7.2

In 17th century Japan, Young Lord Masato returns after years abroad to find everything changed: his peace-loving father has died in what he soon finds to be mysterious circumstances, and his mother's married to his uncle, whose ruthless ambition is causing turmoil in the kingdom. Not knowing who to trust, Masato feigns madness, vowing to get to the truth, even though his act causes distress to the girl he loves, who's waited for him all these years. The ghost of his father turns up now and then to show him the way. Meanwhile a peasant revolt is brewing... It all ends tragically.

Castle of Flames

1960

Sanshiro Sugata poster
6.5

A hotheaded youth in 1880s Meiji Japan apprentices to judo master Shōgorō Yano, trading brute jujutsu bravado for discipline and humility. As Sanshirō matures, he proves judo’s spirit against old-guard challengers—including a deadly duel—while falling for his vanquished opponent’s daughter. Based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita, son of Tomita Tsunejirō, the earliest disciple of judo.

Sanshiro Sugata

1943

Outlaw poster
NR

A young engineer and a pure-hearted mountain girl take on the challenges of the Akan primeval forest, where lawlessness and violence run rampant.

Outlaw

1953

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era poster
7.0

Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for his troubles.

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era

1957

Shunsetsu no mon poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Shunsetsu no mon

1953

Flame and the Code poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Flame and the Code

1966

No artwork available
NR

During the Warring States period, immediately after Hideyoshi Hashiba defeated Mitsuhide Akechi at the Battle of Yamazaki, in the village of Ogurisu in Yamashiro Province, which was located near the battlefield, a group of children were scavenging for swords, and among them was the rogue Chōbei. Since Mitsuhide’s body was missing, Hideyoshi offered a bounty for his head while simultaneously confiscating horses and rice from the villagers.

Chobei the Rogue

1949

Fearful Witch poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Fearful Witch

1962

New Prison Walls of Abashiri 2 poster
6.5

Suehiro Katsuji, a prisoner of Abashiri, is sent to Shikoku to work at a dock where a fierce turf battle takes place between a local gang and the dock operator.

New Prison Walls of Abashiri 2

1969

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail poster
6.7

A fugitive lord and his six retainers disguise themselves as monks to bluff their way through a hostile checkpoint.

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail

1952

The Black Current poster
10.0

A reporter Takuo, who is sleeping in the newspaper room of the Maichō newspaper company, receives a sudden report from a reporter that the missing Akiyama JNR president was found dead.

The Black Current

1954

As Long as I Live poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

As Long as I Live

1946

Tales of Young Genji Kuro 2 poster
7.0

Thanks to a secret message hidden on the two sacred swords Kaen and Suien, the samurai Genji Kurô (Nakamura Kinnosuke) found the hidden treasure of Lord Yoshitsune. When he gives a piece of the treasure to a couple of poor but honest people so they can pay their debts, it attracts the unwanted attention of several dishonest people, such as pirates, greedy merchants and rebels. While the government is fighting a battle for power against rebels and royalists, all want the treasure by any means possible.

Tales of Young Genji Kuro 2

1958

Taira Clan Saga poster
6.8

Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.

Taira Clan Saga

1955

The Harbor Lights poster
6.3

No synopsis available yet.

The Harbor Lights

1961

The Shape of Night poster
6.8

Yoshie Nogami, a factory worker by day, works as a bar hostess at night. She begins a passionate affair with one of her regulars, but his changing demeanor and constant demands for money lead Yoshie down a dark path.

The Shape of Night

1964