Sayonara Tokkan Kozo

[Aaron Gerow]

The papers reported that Aoki Tomio, who was known as "Tokkan Kozo" as 
a child actor, died on the 24th at the age of 80 from lung cancer.

Aoki first debuted in films in 1929 and came to fame in playing the 
title role in Ozu Yasujiro's _Tokkan kozo_, a street-wise, comical punk 
who came to be featured in dozens of Shochiku Kamata films, the most 
famous of which is _I Was Born But..._. Aoki played in many of Ozu's 
early films, but quit the movies in 1940, only to start a second career 
in 1955 as a character actor in many Nikkatsu films. That career lasted 
until 1972, when he again retired from the screen. What launched his 
third career was Shinozaki Makoto's _Okaeri_ in 1996, where he has a 
brief role as an old man sitting on a bench. Shinozaki got along with 
Aoki so well that he built the film _Wasurerarenu hitobito_ around him 
(it is partially based on Aoki's wartime experiences), a film which 
earned Aoki and his two male co-stars a best actor award at the Nantes 
Film Festival.

The Japanese Movie Database lists 191 films to his name, but given his 
activities as a character actor, he probably appeared in many more than 
that.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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