76-year-old actor Masachika Ichimura appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on September 12th. He talked about his memories of his parents.
Although he was born the eldest son of a farming family, his father handed over his rights to the second son and told him to "do what he wanted." After returning from the war, he worked in a variety of jobs, and "ultimately, I risked my life to create a local newspaper where I could express myself."
His mother was 10 years younger than his father. "We were really close," he recalls. His father liked alcohol, so he suggested to him, "Why don't you open a bar? You're charming, so customers will come," and when he opened the bar, it was a success. "What made my father happy was being able to drink for free. He had a reserved seat and was always there, drinking happily, listening to everyone's stories, doing interviews and writing articles for the newspaper."
My father refused military pensions, saying, "I'm grateful that I was able to return home safely, so I shouldn't accept any money," and before he died he told my mother, "The body of a man who drank so much could be a valuable source of medical research, so let me donate it."
"At the exact time (when my father passed away), I was performing Romeo and Juliet at the Aoyama Theater in a performance by the Shiki Theatre Company. It was the opening day. I suddenly lost my voice. It was around 10:00 a.m. I thought it was serious so I got massages and did various things until I was able to regain my voice, but it was at that moment that I found out that night that my father had passed away," he recalled. "I'm sure he wanted to say something," he said. About a year and a half after donating his body, he returned home. "It was typical of my father to want to live for others even after he died," he said.
When he was in his third year of junior high school, his father told him, "You're hungry," on the way home from visiting the shrine for the first time in the new year. At the time, he didn't understand what it meant, but after he became an actor, he realized, "Maybe he meant to stay hungry. It's better not to have everything, it's better not to have it all. That's what he was trying to say." He said, "I've become able to make a living, but the message to stay hungry remains."
