By Gwen Muranaka
“He’s in ‘Shōgun,’” Kay Oda whispered to me of the gentleman next to him last Saturday at the Valley Japanese Community Center’s 70th celebration. Sure enough, I looked and there was Lord Sugiyama, a member of the Council of Regents, or rather Toshi Toda at the table next to Kay, Consul General Kenko Sone, and his wife, Mami, and Liz Doomey.
I wasn’t the only one who was a little starstruck. I’ve been enjoying this adaptation of James Clavell’s “Shōgun,” which concluded its critically acclaimed run on FX this week.
Toda has been an actor for more than 50 years with credits that include “Menace II Society,” “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
He explained that Lord Sugiyama, like the rest of “Shōgun,” is based upon Japanese history. In this case, Maeda Toshiie, who was a general serving Oda Nobunaga. It’s a small spoiler, but Toda’s character takes a principled stand in the conflict, unlike his peers, who are divided into factions and conflicted loyalties.
“He didn’t belong to any group. He goes his own way. I really liked him,” Toda said.
Unlike Lord Sugiyama, Toda spoke with a broad smile of his time in Vancouver shooting “Shōgun” and even joined in dancing “Taiko Bushi” with other members of Valley JCC.
“I was in five episodes. For each episode, I would have to fly back and forth. The longest time I was there was four weeks usually it was one week so going back and forth,” he said. “The weather over there was tough. Fortunately, all my scenes were all inside.”
Japanese culture is having a moment, in so many ways.
Toshi Toda with Christine Inouye at the Valley Japanese Community Center 70th anniversary celebration.
So much has changed in the cultural landscape since 2005 when Zhang Ziyi was cast to play the lead in “Memoirs of a Geisha” or Tom Cruise was leading the charge for the Japanese in “The Last Samurai.”
They filmed part of “The Last Samurai” at Vibiana’s in Little Tokyo and I recall going past the film crews who were stationed in a parking lot where the Terasaki Budokan is today. Hiroyuki Sanada, a major star in Japan, first made an impression in “The Last Samurai,” but it took 20 years for him to have control as the producer of “Shōgun” and, one senses, with that came an insistence on authenticity.
I appreciated how Father Alvito (Tommy Bastow) spoke Japanese in a way that you felt the Japanese dialogue rather than sensing that he was just phonetically repeating it, as so often happens. And so often an emotional beat was conveyed through silence and repose, rather than a need to constantly bombard the viewer with loud visuals.
Toda said the production stayed true to Japanese culture, despite being filmed outside of Japan.
“It was an important series and very authentic. Many people came from Japan and they brought 5,000 wigs from Japan,” Toda said.
“Sometimes (Hollywood) misunderstands our culture. So, I wanted to…introduce the world correctly,” Sanada explained to CNN.
It’s also wonderful that this has led to opportunities for actors and crew such as Toda.
“It’s amazing. I was so fortunate to be in that production. Everybody is recognizing me. They’re saying, ‘You did a great job,’ so I’m very happy to be in it,” he said.
As “Shōgun” continues to garner accolades, a sad footnote is the lonely passing of Yoko Shimada, who so memorably portrayed Mariko in the 1980 miniseries.
Shimada won a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination, but when she passed away of cancer in 2022 she died alone and nearly destitute at a Tokyo hospital.
According to Asahi Shimbun, Shibuya Ward officials tried to contact family members but no one showed up to claim her body. After two weeks, authorities cremated her body.
The circumstances of her death brought attention to the increasing number of lonely deaths in Japan, as the country ages and there are more and more individuals with few family or friends.
In Shimada’s final movie, “Ever Garden,” she portrayed a woman struggling to make a living as the owner of a ryokan amid the COVID pandemic.
Barbie hair.
I guess when you’re around long enough you can see how culture changes.
Cartooning for me has been a bit of a personal time capsule and now when I look back I see in some of my older work the way that I have changed and also the ways society has evolved.
In today’s Rafu, Kristi Yamaguchi is holding her very own Barbie.
When I drew this cartoon back in the early ’90s, Barbie hair meant blonde and the little girl in my cartoon felt like she could never be Barbie. For JA girls like me, we had very few role models to look up to.
Kristi helped change that when she won the gold in figure skating at the 1992 Winter Games. The number of Asian American athletes who followed in Kristi’s footsteps are numerous, including the likes of Mirai Nagasu, Michelle Kwan, Nathan Chen, and Alex and Maia Shibutani.
Way back then in our office at Pacific Citizen, there was a sign of her impact on American culture: Kristi’s photo on a box of Wheaties.
Gwen Muranaka is Rafu senior editor and can be contacted at gwen@rafu.com. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.