[4] In addition to regular appearances in the films of Akira Kurosawa,[1][3] he worked for directors such as Mikio Naruse, Yasujirō Ozu, Heinosuke Gosho and others.

The authorities were pushing for artists and high profile individuals to change their names to the traditional spelling, and he was under official censure to do so.

Generally he played the role of an ordinary subject-citizen: petty, conservative, mediocre, far from being handsome or rich.

Be Like a Rose!, and had roles in Heinosuke Gosho's An Inn at Osaka and Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Twilight.

The peasant duo in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, played by Minoru Chiaki and Fujiwara, has repeatedly been cited as inspiration for the robot characters C-3PO and R2-D2 in Star Wars.