Ken Ogata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Ogata
photos
http://www.google.hr/search?q=ken+ogata&hl=hr&client=opera&hs=2AH&channel=suggest&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=cd1WUcjUA7KM4gT4mICABw&ved=0CDMQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=651
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishima:_A_Life_in_Four_Chapters
Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫 Mishima Yukio?) was the pen name of Kimitake
Hiraoka (平岡 公威 Hiraoka Kimitake?, January 14,
1925 – November 25, 1970), a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, and film
director. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of
the 20th century. His avant-garde work displayed a blending of modern and
traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on
sexuality, death, and political change. He is also remembered for his ritual
suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima
Coup attempt and ritual suicide
Mishima delivering his speech in the failed coup attempt
just prior to committing seppuku (November 25, 1970)
On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the
Tatenokai, under pretext, visited the commandant of the Ichigaya Camp, the Tokyo headquarters of the
Eastern Command of Japan's Self-Defense Forces. Inside, they barricaded the
office and tied the commandant to his chair. With a prepared manifesto and a
banner listing their demands, Mishima stepped onto the balcony to address the
soldiers gathered below. His speech was intended to inspire a coup d'état to
restore the power of the emperor. He succeeded only in irritating the soldiers,
and was mocked and jeered. He finished his planned speech after a few minutes,
returned to the commandant's office and committed seppuku. The assisting
kaishakunin duty at the end of this ritual (to decapitate Mishima) had been
assigned to Tatenokai member Masakatsu Morita, who was unable to properly perform
the task. After several failed attempts at severing Mishima's head, he allowed
another Tatenokai member, Hiroyasu Koga, to behead him. Morita then knelt and
stabbed himself in the abdomen and Koga again performed the kaishakunin duty.
Another traditional element of the suicide ritual was the
composition of so-called death poems before their entry into the headquarters.
Mishima planned his suicide meticulously for at least a year and no one outside
the group of hand-picked Tatenokai members had any indication of what he was
planning. His biographer, translator John Nathan, suggests that the coup
attempt was only a pretext for the ritual suicide of which Mishima had long
dreamed. Mishima made sure his affairs were in order and left money for the
legal defense of the three surviving Tatenokai members.
The Ballad of Narayama,1983., three decades of the artistic
power
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Narayama_(1983_film)
is a 1983 Japanese film by director Shōhei Imamura. It stars
Sumiko Sakamoto as Orin, Ken Ogata, and Shoichi Ozawa. It is an adaptation of
the book Narayama bushiko by Shichirō Fukazawa and slightly inspired by 1958
film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita.
The film is set in a small rural village in Japan in the
19th century. According to tradition, once a person reaches the age of 70 he or
she must travel to a remote mountain to die of starvation, a practice known as
ubasute. The story concerns Orin, who is 69 and of sound health, but notes that
a neighbor had to drag his father to the mountain, so she resolves to avoid
clinging to life beyond her term. She spends a year arranging all the affairs
of her family and village: she severely punishes a family who are hoarding
food, and helps her younger son lose his virginity.
The film has some harsh scenes that show how brutal the
conditions could be for the villagers. Interspersed between episodes in the
film are brief vignettes of nature – birds, snakes, and other animals hunting,
watching, singing, copulating or giving birth.
Shoichi Ozawa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoichi_Ozawa
photos
http://www.google.hr/search?q=Shoichi+Ozawa&hl=hr&client=opera&hs=xnb&channel=suggest&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3dxWUfmaK8Ks4ATn-4AY&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=651
Sumiko Sakamoto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumiko_Sakamoto
photos
http://www.google.hr/search?q=sumiko+sakamoto&hl=hr&client=opera&hs=7ib&channel=suggest&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=sdtWUYSqFMO34ASpsIGQCA&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=651
Shohei Imamura
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shohei_Imamura
photos
http://www.google.hr/search?q=shohei+imamura&hl=hr&client=opera&hs=7ob&channel=suggest&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Jd1WUeubDerf4QTvo4CoBw&ved=0CEQQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=651