Biography
Eijirō Yanagi (also credited as 柳栄二郎) was a Japanese stage and film actor. Born Takeshi Nagai on 16 September 1895 in Hyogo Prefecture, he made his stage debut in 1913 after graduating from Ikubunkan Junior High School in Tokyo. He worked with various shinpa and shingeki troupes before forming the Shinsei Shinpa theatre company in 1938.
Yanagi appeared in more than 160 films between 1940 and 1975, often in supporting roles for directors including Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Akira Kurosawa and Heinosuke Gosho. His credits include The Life of Oharu (1952), The Idiot (1951), The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (1952), The Tale of Zatoichi (1962) and its sequel, and An Actor's Revenge (1963) as Hiromi-ya. He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1966 and the Order of the Rising Sun, Fourth Class, in 1970. His final stage performance was in 1982; he died on 24 April 1984.
