After graduation, working as an extra, he entered Oriental Production, which was founded by Thomas Harper Ince for Asian actors.
There he worked with Sesshu Hayakawa, Tsuruko Aoki, Goro Kino and many other Japanese actors.
Hoping to work film industry in his country, Kurihara went back to Japan in 1918, and entered Taishō Katsuei in April 1920, a film production which Ryozō Asano of Asano zaibatsu (Kurihara's acquaintance) founded at Yamashita-cho, Yokohama.
His first work at Taisho was Amateur Club (1920), which Junichiro Tanizaki joined as a film writer.
He also lectured many film directors and actors: Tomu Uchida, Kintaro Inoue and Buntaro Futagawa; Tokihiko Okada, Michiko Hayama, Ureo Egawa and Atsushi Watanabe.