of his movies, for 40 years, were made with Toho. Marriage to Sadako Sawamura In 1936 he married popular fellow actor Sadako Sawamura, whom he had met whilst working together on set. Though they acted in many Toho Studio films, they were only in two together; Toyuki a Chinese/Japanese co production made in 1940 and Uma, made in 1941. They did not produce children and divorced in 1946. Fujiwara did not remarry. In the late 1930, Kamatari found himself in trouble with the nationalist government. They 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. Despite this, he kept his name. Work with Kurosawa He made his first appearance in a Kurosawa film alongside Takashi Shimura in 1952's Ikiru. He played the role of Senkichi. Fujiwara's shomin persona is always that of a real-life person. Generally he played the role of an ordinary subject-citizen: petty, conservative, mediocre, far from being handsome or rich. Over time he made this his specialty. All up, Fujiwara appeared in 12 of Kurosawa's films, and along with Mifune, Shimura, Nakadai and Chiaki, was regarded as one of Kurosawa's core actors. Perhaps the two most famous roles for Kurosawa were the well-remembered role in The Lower Depths, where he plays a drunken Kabuki actor complaining about his "Bitol Organs", and his role as Manzo in Seven Samurai. Ironically, despite his roles generally being supporting roles to other action type actors like Mifune, Fujiwara was an accomplished martial artist which he had studied and applied to his stage performance in his earlier years. He became a long-time member of director Akira Kurosawa's company of actors until his death. Though a capable and highly professional actor, his subtle technique was very often overshadowed by the charismatic performances of Shimura and Toshiro Mifune, with whom he developed a friendship . While on the set of Hidden Fortress he was drinking with Mifune, who became brusque. While smaller than Mifune, Fujiwara became annoyed at his rudeness, and despite the fact Mifune was a huge star in Japan at the time (and the film's lead), Fujiwara used a Karate blow to knock him to the ground. Rather than being angry, Mifune laughed but behaved well for the rest of the filming. He is remembered primarily for his supporting appearances in Kurosawa's films, particularly as the