Kei Satō

Kei Satō (佐藤 慶, Satō Kei) was a Japanese character actor and narrator. He was born in Aizu. He is known for his work with Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Oshima, and for several films with Kaneto Shindo, such as Onibaba and Kuroneko. He won the best actor award from Kinema Junpo for the films The Ceremony and Nihon no akuryō. He also worked as a narrator for many documentaries, both on television and film.

In his early days as an actor, before his success in The Human Condition, he supported himself by producing gariban hand-written mimeographs, and he maintained his interest in hand-printing to the end of his life.

In 1981 he appeared in the film Daydream performing an unsimulated sex scene with actress Kyoko Aizome. The involvement of a mainstream actor in a hardcore film made good press coverage and brought audiences to the theater "in droves".

Filmography

Films

Television

Prayer beads

Prayer beads are used by members of various religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Sikhism and the Bahá'í Faith to mark the repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions, such as the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Catholicism, and dhikr (remembrance of God) in Islam.

Origins and etymology

Beads are among the earliest human ornaments and ostrich shell beads in Africa date to 10,000 BC. Over the centuries various cultures have made beads from a variety of materials from stone and shells to clay.

The English word bead derives from the Old English noun bede which means a prayer. The exact origins of prayer beads remain uncertain, but their earliest use probably traces to Hindu prayers in India.Buddhism probably borrowed the concept from Hinduism. The statue of a holy Hindu man with beads dates to the 3rd century BC.

Structure

The number of beads varies by religion or use. Islamic prayer beads, called "Misbaha" or "Tasbih", usually have 99 or 33 beads. Buddhists and Hindus use the Japa Mala which usually has 108 beads, or 27 which are counted four times. Baha'i prayer beads consist of either 95 beads or 19 beads strung with the addition of five beads below. The Sikh Mala also has 108 beads.

Joe Odagiri

Jō Odagiri (小田切 譲, Odagiri Jō, born February 16, 1976), better known by his stage name Joe Odagiri (オダギリ ジョー, Odagiri Jō) is a Japanese actor and musician. South China Morning Post described him as "a rebel, something made evident by his grungy, gothic style".

Career

Odagiri co-starred with Zhang Ziyi in Seijun Suzuki's Princess Raccoon, with Tadanobu Asano and Tatsuya Fuji in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Bright Future, with Ryo Kase in Lee Sang-il's Scrap Heaven, and with Jang Dong-gun in Kang Je-gyu's My Way.

He has starred in films such as Atsushi Funahashi's Big River,Masanori Tominaga's The Pavillion Salamandre, and Kim Ki-duk's Dream.

He has also appeared in films such as Junji Sakamoto's Out of This World,Shinji Aoyama's Sad Vacation, and Hirokazu Koreeda's I Wish.

Personal life

Odagiri Joe was born in Tsuyama, Okayama prefecture. Though he was accepted by Kochi University, he turned it down for an opportunity to study in the United States. He had originally intended to study film directing at California State University, Fresno, but mistakes in the application process landed him in acting classes. He often says that Fresno is his second homeland.