Shinsuke Mikimoto

Education

Born in Kanazawa, he graduated from high school there. Then he attended Rikkyo University in Tokyo, graduating from the Faculty of Economics.

Career

Primarily a supporting actor, Mikimoto frequently appeared as a bad guy in jidaigeki on television and in film. Additionally, he took roles such as Kiyokawa Hachirō in Moeyo Ken, a prime-time bakumatsu story on NET in 1970. He played Ōtaka Tadao (Gengo), one of the Forty-seven Ronin, in the 1971 Daichūshingura starring Toshirō Mifune. Another historical role was Hirate Masahide in the NHK Taiga drama Takeda Shingen.

Mikimoto mostly took parts as fictional characters. His career includes seven appearances on Mito Kōmon, spanning the years from 1978 to 1994. Many other long-running jidaigeki cast Mikimoto in guest-star roles, among them Abarenbō Shōgun, Zenigata Heiji, Onihei Hankachō (on which he was also a regular character), Ōoka Echizen, and Chōshichirō Edo Nikki.

In film, Mikimoto appeared in Gion Matsuri (1968) with Kinnosuke Nakamura and Toshiro Mifune; The Fall of Ako Castle (1978), directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring Nakamura, Mifune, and Sonny Chiba; and films set in modern times such as Zero Fighter Burns and the 1986 The Return of Godzilla with Raymond Burr and Japan Academy Prize-winning actress Yasuko Sawaguchi.

Death

Mikimoto died of lung cancer in 2002.