intended from the start to position Raizō as a successor to the star Kazuo Hasegawa, and it “proceeded smoothly along the tracks.” Tokuzō Tanaka shared the opinion that Katsu, who was the first of the two to make his debut, was “like a second helping of Hasegawa” when he played an attractive young man in his white-faced film makeup; but as the director and supporting cast could hardly be described as first-rate, it was a long time before Katsu managed to become a real success. It wasn't until the 1960s and the release and success of the Akumyō and Zatoichi series that Katsu became widely discussed and surpassed Raizō in earnings. Akinari Suzuki said of Katsu, “It wasn’t until after shooting 70 or 80 films without a single real hit, that he finally became of use with the release of Akumyō.” According to Tokuzō Tanaka, audience reception to Shiranui Kengyō, released in 1960, was particularly terrible, despite Katsu's highly acclaimed performance, to the point that Tanaka received complaints from movie theater owners about his constant use of Katsu in his films. Reflecting on the state of things in 1959, Katsu said “The banzuke was totally different,” referring to the document listing sumo wrestlers’ ranks before a tournament. “We already knew that Raizō was an ōzeki or a yokozuna. I still hadn’t entered the san’yaku,” meaning that Raizō could be considered to be among the very highest regarded stars, while Katsu was still a relative unknown. Eventually the pair became treated as a unit, with the name “KATSURAISU,” taking Katsu's surname and the first half of Raizō's given name to create a name which happened to sound like the food dish “katsu rice.” When the two appeared on movie posters and in films together under this slogan, they were often made to appear in contrast to one another in their appearance and style, and it was widely believed that there was a strong rivalry between them. However, their usage of friendly nicknames like “Rai-chan” and “Katchan” for each other indicates that their relationship certainly wasn't bad, and in fact might even have been quite friendly. In fact, Raizō had a close friendship with Katsu's wife, Tamao Nakamura, from childhood, as her father, Nakamura Kanjirō II, was a Kansai-based kabuki actor like Raizō's adopted fathers. The author Tomomi Muramatsu indicated that for Raizo, who had “worriedly spent his days in the world