The Tora-san statue outside Shibamata Station. Photo by Brett Homenick.
For the first time since 2013, I went to Shibamata Station to check out the various Tora-san sights in the area. Of course, I'd already seen the Tora-san statue during my previous visit.
Tora-san and his sister, Sakura, outside Shibamata Station. Photo by Brett Homenick.
But I hadn't seen the statue of Tora-san's sister, Sakura, who was played in the long-running film series by actress Chieko Baisho. There's a good reason for that. The bronze Sakura statue was dedicated in 2017.
The statue of Sakura (actress Chieko Baisho). Photo by Brett Homenick.
Of interest to Godzilla fans is that Chieko Baisho is married to composer Reijiro Koroku, who wrote the score to Godzilla 1985 (1984). Not that many Godzilla series composers have bronze statues of their wives in Tokyo.
After checking out the statues, I made my way over to the Tora-san Museum as well as the Yoji Yamada Museum. Yoji Yamada is the director most closely associated with the Tora-san series, although he has directed numerous films outside the series, such as The Yellow Handkerchief (1977) and The Twilight Samurai (2002).
Overall, it was a fun day in the company of Tora-san, and I should start paying more attention to the Tora-san movies. I've enjoyed the ones I've seen, so why not? Let's give 'em another spin!
