---
name: "Ken Ogata"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/ken-ogata"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "20 July 1937"
died: "5 October 2008"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 84
updated: "2026-09-16T14:07:59.622988+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Ken Ogata

Actor. Born 20 July 1937 in Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan. Died 5 October 2008.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 20 July 1937, Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
- **Died:** 5 October 2008
- **Active:** 1983–1985
- **Also known as:** Кэн Огата, 오가타 켄, 绪形拳, Akinobu Ogata

## Fi1m on Ken Ogata

> Ken Ogata makes difficult men believable without asking us to like them. His conviction holds *Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters* together; in *The Ballad of Narayama*, his closeness to his screen mother makes the cruelty hurt.

Orin is preparing to be abandoned, yet she continues to look after her family. In *The Ballad of Narayama* (1983), Sumiko Sakamoto makes that everyday care almost unbearable, while Ken Ogata, as her son Tatsuhei, keeps their attachment painfully clear. We were horrified because she goes on being a mother when the custom requires her family to give her up. Ogata gives the impending obligation its force by making us believe in the relationship it threatens.

His film career gathered pace in the late 1970s, and Shōhei Imamura became a recurring collaborator. *Vengeance Is Mine* (1979), in which he plays serial killer Iwao Enokizu, established his reputation abroad. Imamura directed him in five films, including *Narayama*. The director’s comparisons between villagers and animals grow insistent there; Ogata and Sakamoto are persuasive enough that we would rather be left to watch the family.

Paul Schrader puts that conviction to a different use in *Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters* (1985). Ogata’s Yukio Mishima has to remain credible while the film moves between biography and theatrical versions of the novels. He makes the writer’s artistic discipline seem capable of governing a whole life. That is a large demand to place on an actor, and he meets it without making the biographical scenes feel like explanations of the books. We do not have to feel affection for this man to believe how seriously he takes his work.

*Mishima* was one of his prominent Western collaborations; he later played the Father in Peter Greenaway’s *The Pillow Book* (1996). These were occasional departures in a career spent largely in Japanese cinema, and they should not obscure the value of the Imamura work. Ogata does not have to carry a whole film to be essential to it: Sakamoto leads *Narayama*, and his contribution is to make the bond between them convincing. Start with *Mishima*, allowing some patience for the theatrical novel sequences, then watch him alongside her.

## Biography

Ken Ogata (born Akinobu Ogata) was a Japanese actor. He began his career in 1958 with the Shinkokugeki theatre troupe and made his screen debut in 1960. His starring role as Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1965 NHK Taiga drama Taikōki brought him widespread recognition, and he appeared in numerous subsequent television series, including other Taiga dramas.

Ogata was known for his film roles, including Iwao Enokizu in Vengeance Is Mine (1979), Tatsuhei in The Ballad of Narayama (1983), Yukio Mishima in Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) and the father in The Pillow Book (1996). He received the Japan Academy Prize for Best Actor three times, for The Demon (1979), The Ballad of Narayama (1984) and House on Fire (1987). He was awarded Japan's Medal of Honour with Purple Ribbon in 2000.

Ogata died of liver cancer on 5 October 2008, shortly after completing filming for the television drama Kaze no Garden. His sons Kanta Ogata and Naoto Ogata are also actors.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nytimes.com, theguardian.com, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters* (1985), Fi1m 86, as Yukio Mishima — [page](https://film.one/film/mishima-a-life-in-four-chapters.md)
- *The Ballad of Narayama* (1983), Fi1m 82, as Tatsuhei — [page](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-narayama.md)

## Also known for

- *The Pillow Book* (1995), The Father
- *Vengeance Is Mine* (1979), Iwao Enokizu
- *The Hidden Blade* (2004), Chief Retainer Hori
- *September 11* (2002), Villager (segment "Japan")
- *Izo* (2004), Swordsman
- *Love and Honor* (2006), Magohachiro Kibe
- *Virus* (1980), Prof. Tsuchiya
- *The Castle of Sand* (1974), Kenichi Miki

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ken-ogata