Kiyoshi Atsumi

Kiyoshi Atsumi (渥美 清), born Yasuo Tadokoro (田所康雄) (1929-1996), was a Japanese film actor.

He started his career in 1951 as a comedian at a strip-show theater in Asakusa. After two years of fighting against pulmonary tuberculosis, he made his debut on TV in 1956 and on film in 1957. His performance vividly acting a lovable, innocent man in a film “Dear Mr. Emperor” (Haikei Tennno-Heika-Sama) in 1963 established his reputation as an actor.

Later he became the star of the highly popular 'Tora-san' series of films, from 'Tora-san' in 1969 to the forty-eighth film released in 1995, the previous year of his death.

All the Tora-san movies were written and directed by Yoji Yamada, and all had much the same plot - Tora-san arrives in some remote town, fixing to con the locals out of their money. He meets a local woman and falls in love. But finding himself on the brink of marriage he abandons her and his schemes to flee back to his home in Shibamata, Katsushika Ward, Tokyo.

Many Japanese regarded his death as the death of Tora-san, not the death of Yasuo Tadokoro or Kiyoshi Atsumi.