From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Ichikawa Raizō VIII (born 29 August 1931 in Kyoto, Japan, died 17 July 1969 in Tokyo, Japan) was a Japanese film and kabuki actor. Died of rectal cancer. He was born as Yoshiya Ōta in Kyoto on August 29, 1931. Ichikawa Raizō appeared mostly in period dramas (jidaigeki). He is best known for the Sleepy Eyes of Death (Nemuri Kyoshiro) series, Ninja (Shinobi no Mono) series and Nakano Spy School (Rikugun Nakano Gakkō) series (based on the Nakano School). Raizō worked many times with director Kenji Misumi. Their collaborations include The Sword (Ken) (from a book by Yukio Mishima) and Destiny's Son (Kiru). Other great works include An Actor's Revenge (Yukinojo henge). Description above from the Wikipedia article Raizō Ichikawa, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.