Kamen Rider: A Message to the Future

Hiroshi Fujioka

Hiroshi Fujioka (Takeshi Hongo / Kamen Rider #1) shares his background and what he believes Kamen Rider stands for.

[Interview originally transcribed in Japanese by Ken Ishii]

Filming Without a Stunt Double

I was raised at the police station of Temple 44 of the 88 Shikoku Temple Pilgrimage, so I grew up with great reverence for nature, shrines, and temples. My mother taught tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and the koto (traditional Japanese stringed instrument). In a sense, my family bore the weight of carrying on traditional Japanese arts. My father, a shakuhachi (traditional Japanese flute) player and a policeman, taught me martial arts to instill in me the will to survive.

I am a man who played the hero Kamen Rider without a stunt double, a man with 20 dan in various martial arts, and this was where I came from.

One day, my father suddenly said, “I still have work to do,” and disappeared. It was a time of war, and my father worked for the Consul of Japan in China. His body was covered with wounds, and I guess the reason for his sudden disappearance was because of a special mission of some sort.

Sometime after that, my brother, no longer able to sit and watch our mother suffer, admonished me, telling me, “You’ll have to live on using your own strength.” I was enraptured by Kurama Tengu, a series of period dramas starring Kanjuro Arashi, so I left home for Tokyo at the age of 18 to pursue a life in the world of show business.

Hiroshi Fujioka standing next to Kamen Rider #1 and Cyclone (motorcycle)

“Live, and thrive.”

There was a lot of road and subway construction being done in preparation for the Olympics, so I worked in construction part-time while attending an actor training school. It was thanks to the help of the migrant workers of Tokyo, and the kind men and women of the countryside, that I didn’t go hungry.

“Live, and thrive.”

You would hear that everywhere during the Showa era. In Oushou starring Rentaro Mikuni, one of my favorite actors, and in Miyamoto Musashi starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya. Also in movies produced by Nikkatsu starring Yujiro Ishihara or Akira Kobayashi. You’d hear it from people like the sumo wrestler Rikidozan or baseball player Shigeo Nagashima, even in songs by Hibari Misora or Haruo Minami…

In any field you could imagine, the message to “live” was imparted by those with more experience, and it brought comfort to all.

And that very message, in all its entirety, is in Kamen Rider. He fights alone against hordes of enemies of an evil organization, all so that no one else would be turned into a cyborg like he was.

The spiritual foundation of the Showa era, and the connection to family and home, have all but faded, but we of my generation have a responsibility to impart the strength and knowledge to live to the children of today – for it is they who carry the future of Japan.

Hiroshi Fujioka

Society Is Made by Children Who Watched Kamen Rider

Fortunately, the children who grew up watching Kamen Rider now make up today’s society. Now they give announcements at airports and train stations, and they shake hands with each other as they exchange business cards. They are now doctors or hold crucial roles in companies.

In my case, I inherited my warrior’s heart from my father, and with that heart, I have provided aid and relief to those suffering from war, famine, and natural disasters.

To impart my way of life, that of helping others until our last breath, onto my four children is my reason for living right now.

But it would serve better to not even consider age, because pursuing dreams unbecoming of my age provides me with strength and energy.

Source: Sankei Shinbun

Hiroshi Fujioka is famously known for his role as Takeshi Hongo / Kamen Rider #1 in Kamen Rider (1971). Kamen Rider is available to watch with English subtitles on Tubi, Pluto TV, and more.