CHRISTMAS WITH SHINICHI YANAGISAWA! The Shochiku Star Brings the Holiday Cheer!

Yours truly between Shinichi Yanagisawa (left) and saxophonist Kyoichi Watanabe (right).

On Tuesday, December 15, I made my way to the HUB in Asakusa to see actor-singer Shinichi Yanagisawa perform jazz songs live. I do this every time he has a show in Asakusa, but I was especially interested to go this time, since I was looking forward to hearing some Christmas songs!

Shinichi Yanagisawa on the drums! No one does it better. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Suffice it to say, the show was great. Of course, Yanagisawa-san was extremely friendly, as he always is. I was very happy to give him and my friend Kyoichi their Christmas cards. Nothing beats getting into the holiday spirit!

Shinichi Yanagisawa is an actor best known in the West for portraying Miyamoto in The X from Outer Space (1967), and his "plastic water" line in the film remains one of my favorites in the entire genre. Still, Yanagisawa-san has numerous credits at Shochiku and Nikkatsu, dating back to the 1950s. His is a career definitely worth checking out!