Background
Ken'ichi Enomoto was born in 1914. He was the son of rice cracker shop owners.
Ken'ichi Enomoto was born in 1914. He was the son of rice cracker shop owners.
In 1929, he participated in the launch of the theater group Casino Folly in Asakusa and created the Casino Enoken boom with his unique charm and solid performance by moving about in his petite physique. In 1934, he starred in the movie Enoken no Seishun Suikoden (Enoken’s Tale of Youth’s Folly), and gained national popularity. He worked actively in movies and on stage and became a central figure in the Japanese comedy world. Although he had the misfortune of having his right leg amputated in old age, he also made a comeback wearing a prosthetic leg at the Shinjuku Koma Theatre in 1963. His subsequent film career saw him parody a whole parade of Japanese historical personages, including Kondō Isami and Sakamoto Ryōma, in a series of "jidai-geki" (historical dramas) and "chanbara" (samurai drama) films, including some directed by Kajirō Yamamoto, Nobuo Nakagawa and Akira Kurosawa.
