PIGMON TURNS 70! Actor-Singer Hiroshi Chiba Celebrates His Birthday in Concert!

Hiroshi Chiba performs onstage. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Friday, September 18, I made my way to Yotsuya to attend a special birthday-themed concert held by Hiroshi Chiba. Of course, Chiba-san's actual birthday falls on September 19, but the big celebration took place the night before.

Mariko Matsuoka presents a birthday cake to Hiroshi Chiba. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Chiba-san (under the stage name Masahiro Oyake) played Pigmon as a suit actor in episode 37 of Ultraman (1966-67). He also appears in human form in episode 36 of the same series. In the movies, he played the main character Tetsugoro (who was performed by Hideki Takahashi) as a boy in the Nikkatsu actioner Family Crest: Man against Death (1969). Another role of his is in Tsugunobu Kotani's film F2 Grand Prix (1984), starring Ken Tanaka and Katsuhiko Sasaki.

Mariko Matsuoka and actress Nikki Morita (right) look on as Hiroshi Chiba blows out the candles on his birthday cake. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Chiba-san also played Yasohachi Yamagishi in a series of Nikkatsu films based on the risque Go Nagai manga called Harenchi Gakuen ("Shameless School"), namely: Harenchi Gakuen: Shintai Kensa no Maki (1970), Harenchi Gakuen: Tackle Kiss no Maki (1970), and Shin Harenchi Gakuen (1971).

With Mariko Matsuoka.

His best-known role (in Japan, at least) would have to be his appearances as a regular on the massively popular TV series G-Men '75 (1975-82), playing Detective Akio Taguchi from 1979 through 1981. In fact, about halfway through a concert, a salaryman who probably already had a bit too much to drink, entered the venue and shouted to Chiba-san, who was onstage, how much he loved Chiba-san on G-Men '75. Later on, when Chiba-san was singing, he started waving around several pieces of paper that, near as I could tell, were printouts that featured images from the show on them. Kinda amusing but reallllllly weird.

By far, the highlight of the evening for me was running into Mariko Matsuoka again. When she saw me, she exclaimed how surprised she was to see me and gave me a big hug. I came prepared and brought my Kamen Rider Amazon (1974-75) Blu-ray set, and an Ultraman Leo (1974-75) booklet, to get signed.

Of course, Matsuoka-san plays android girl Carolyn in episode 24 of Ultraman Leo, Ritsuko Okamura in Kamen Rider Amazon, Misaki Minekawa in episode 29 of Akumaizer 3 (1975-76), episode 32 of UFO Great War Fight! Red Tiger (1978), and Jun in episode 37 of Kyoryu Sentai Koseidon (1978-79). She also appears in the Fumio Ishimori-penned Shochiku film Frozen River (1976) as Harumi Hayata.

We live about a train station apart and discussed getting together in the future. Looking forward to that!

Congrats to Hiroshi "Pigmon" Chiba on turning the big 7-0!