Kenichi Hagiwara


Kenichi Hagiwara was a Japanese singer and actor.

Music career

Also known as Sho-Ken, he was the lead singer of The Tempters, the "bad boys" of the Group Sounds Japan pop scene in the mid and late 1960s. A teen idol with a legion of loyal fans, Hagiwara was known for his good looks and arrogance, which appealed to both young male and female Japanese fans. After The Tempters, he formed the band PYG along with Kenji Sawada, the first true Japanese supergroup, a unit which included members of The Tigers, The Tempters, and The Spiders. He was in the Donjuan R&R Band with Hideki Ishima, formerly of The Flowers Travelln' Band.

Acting career

After being highly praised for his acting in the film The Rendezvous, he appeared in many films and television shows, including many films directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro and such hit TV dramas as Taiyō ni hoero!, Kizudarake no tenshi, and Zenryaku ofukurosama. He was still popular as an actor in the early 2000s, and a "bad boy" even in his fifties, with minor brushes with law enforcement.

Death

On 26 March 2019, Hagiwara died of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor at the age of 68 in a hospital in Tokyo. He had been fighting the disease since 2011, but with the strong hope of survival he declined to publicize the name of the disease.

Filmography

Film

Television