For the comedian born in 1972, see London Boots Ichi-go Ni-go

London Boots Ichi-go Ni-go

London Boots Ichi-gō Ni-gō are a Japanese comedy duo that originally performed manzai-style stand-up, but now are mainly known for their TV appearances and as hosts of a handful of off-the-wall variety shows...

.

is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 actor from Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

. His father was silent-film star Tsumasaburo Bando

Tsumasaburo Bando

was one of the most prominent Japanese actors of the twentieth century. Famous for his rebellious, sword fighting roles in many jidaigeki silent films, he rose to fame after joining the Tōjiin Studio of Makino Film Productions in Kyoto in 1923.-Early life:...

. With his elder brothers, the late Takahiro

Takahiro Tamura

Takahiro Tamura was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in 100 films between 1954 and 2005. He and his younger brothers Masakazu and Ryō were known as the three Tamura brothers...

 and Masakazu

Masakazu Tamura

is a Japanese film and theatre actor.-Profile:Masakazu Tamura was born 1 August 1943 in Kyoto, Japan to Japanese actor Tsumasaburō Bandō. His brothers Takahiro and Ryō are also actors...

, he is one of the Three Tamura Brothers. Another elder brother, Toshimaro, is active in show business as a manager.

Ryō made his cinema debut in the 1966 Hiroshi Inagaki

Hiroshi Inagaki

was a Japanese filmmaker most known for the Academy Award-winning Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, which he directed in 1954.-Career:Born in Tokyo as the son of a shinpa actor, Inagaki appeared on stage in his childhood before joining the Nikkatsu studio as an actor in 1922...

 film Abare Goemon starring Toshirō Mifune

Toshiro Mifune

Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...

. He also appeared in the 1989 Hiroshi Teshigahara film Rikyū

Rikyu (film)

is Hiroshi Teshigahara's film about the 16th century master of the Japanese tea ceremony, Sen no Rikyū. The film focuses on the late stages of life of Rikyū, during the highly turbulent Sengoku period of Feudal Japan. It starts near the end of Oda Nobunaga's reign, with Rikyū serving as tea master...

with Rentarō Mikuni in the title role.

Since his debut he has taken roles in both jidaigeki

Jidaigeki

is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular...

and modern films and television. He portrayed Ōoka Tadasuke

Ooka Tadasuke

was a Japanese samurai in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune, as a magistrate of Edo, his roles included chief of police, judge and jury, and Yamada Magistrate prior to his tenure as South Magistrate of Edo...

 for the final six years of the long-running prime-time television series Abarenbō Shōgun

Abarenbo Shogun

is a Japanese television program on the TV Asahi network. Set in the eighteenth century, it showed fictitious events in the life of Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun. The program started in 1978 under the title Yoshimune Hyōbanki: Abarenbō Shōgun...

, replacing Tadashi Yokouchi

Tadashi Yokouchi

is a Japanese actor. Born in Dalian, Manchuria, he graduated from high school in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. A member of the 13th group of actors and actresses trained at the Haiyū-za, he counts Tetsuo Ishidate, Toshiyuki Hosokawa, Tomomi Satō, and Gō Katō as classmates. His older...

. A repeating modern role has been Detective Sōsuke Kariya in two-hour dramas costarring Miki Fujitani

Miki Fujitani

is a Japanese actress who was born in Nagoya.In addition to her many live-action film roles, she has had some anime voice roles as a Japanese voice actor, namely Kamiya Kaoru in Rurouni Kenshin and Chun-Li in Street Fighter II The Movie....

.

Tamura played Tōdō Takatora

Todo Takatora

was a Japanese daimyo of the Azuchi-Momoyama period through Edo period. He rose from relatively humble origins as an ashigaru to become a daimyo...

 in the 2000 NHK taiga drama

Taiga drama

is the name NHK gives to the annual, year-long historical fiction television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white Hana no Shōgai, starring kabuki actor Onoe Shōroku and Takarazuka star Awashima Chikage, the network has hired a producer, director, writer, music...

 Aoi Tokugawa Sandai. The network also tapped him for the 2004 miniseries Saigo no Chūshingura

Chushingura

is the name for fictionalized accounts of the historical revenge by the Forty-seven Ronin of the death of their master, Asano Naganori. Including the early , the story has been told in kabuki, bunraku, stage plays, films, novels, television shows and other media...

in which he portrayed Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu

Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu

was a Japanese samurai of the Edo period He was an official in the Tokugawa shogunate and he was a favorite of the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi....

.

External links

• Individual web site
• Tamura Kyodai Official Web Site
• Ryo Tamura at IMDB
• 田村亮 at JMDB
• Saigo no Chūshingura at NHK