[1] For his merits and contribution to arts in 2000 received Japan's Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon.

[3] Other notable roles were in Shohei Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine (1979), Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book (1996).

[1][5] His movie debut was 1960s Tooi Hitotsu No Michi, but his starring role as Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1965 NHK Taiga drama Taikōki catapulted him to fame.

The network tapped him again for the role of Fujiwara no Sumitomo in the 1976 Kaze to Kumo to Niji to.

Another featured appearance in a Taiga drama was in Taiheiki (1991, as Ashikaga Sadauji, father of Takauji).