In the Kamen Rider world, there is a term called “Two Riders”, which means the second rider in the show, who usually assists the protagonist. There are also some “Second Riders” who are not Kamen Riders, such as the flying insect in “Kamen Rider Strong”. Officially, she is not a Kamen Rider. And Kuuga’s police officer Ichijo Karu, although he is not a knight or has the ability to transform, he is dubbed the “Two Rider” by the audience! However, the “Two Knights” cannot be counted among the Chairman’s Knights of the past, which means that they do not have a share in the large gathering of Knights of the past series. Just like the Night Rider of the Dragon Rider, it cannot stand at 555 like the Dragon Rider. Next to AGITO.
Over the years, only Kamen Rider 2 and RIDERMAN can be among the two riders, officially counted as “Kamen Rider 2” and “Kamen Rider 4”! All the years and dynasties have stood together. And Kamen Rider 2 is also the first “Two Riders?” in history. What I want to write about this issue is “Kamen Rider 2”. The man behind the mask – Tsuyoshi Sasaki
Tsuyoshi Sasaki’s original name was Norio Fukui, but he changed his name to Tsuyoshi Sasaki during the filming of “Judo Straight Line”. “Kamen Rider One” Fujioka Hiroshi was injured in a motorcycle accident, and Tsuyoshi Sasaki took over as “Kamen Rider Two” Ichimonji Hayato. In other words, Sasaki has just come to take over the role of “Kamen Rider No. 1” and is already a well-known actor who became famous with “Judo Line”.
Tsuyoshi Sasaki has a strong sense of justice. When he took on the role of “Kamen Rider”, he told producer Maruyama that this was Hiroshi Fujioka’s role, and he would return to the leading role after he recovered.
As a result, Sasaki just debuted in episode 14 and only officially handed over to Hiroshi Fujioka in episode 52 (during this period, Fujioka came back as a guest star in episodes 40 and 41) before returning in the finale of the Shuka Knight episode.
Chiba Shiro (Chiba Shinichi’s younger brother), who plays Taki Kazuya in the play, was full of praise for Tsuyoshi Sasaki! I once read an article on a Japanese IG that he heard personally from Chiba Shiro. He said: Sasaki Tsuyoshi has acted in 85 episodes of Kamen Rider (a total of 98 episodes), which is more scenes than the leading actor Hiroshi Fujioka! (Fujioka starred in a total of 58 episodes), he carries the Kamen Rider brand, he is the real Kamen Rider!
Speaking of Fujioka Hiroshi, although he is now respected as the first Kamen Rider No. 1! I really like Kamen Rider more than a certain Prince of the Black Sun.
However, Fujioka Hiro actually wanted to “get rid of” Kamen Rider. When he recovered and continued to act in Kamen Rider in 1972, Fujioka Hiroshi auditioned for the NHK drama “Red Mustache” and passed the test. However, he did not get the consent of Toei and Mainichi Broadcasting, so there was a conflict, and he was unable to appear in the show. Because he did not know how to face the two film companies, he hid and disappeared for a time.
This incident had a significant impact on the production of “Kamen Rider” chapters 66 to 68, as well as the theatrical version of “Kamen Rider vs. the Ambassador of Hell”! Later, reporters discovered Fujioka near Izu, doing manual labor as a construction worker. When reporters interviewed him, Fujioka expressed his “willingness to take responsibility and dismiss both actors”, which attracted sympathy from the society. Many people believed that “it is normal for actors to want to challenge other works.” Fujioka took the initiative to take responsibility for his “mistakes” in a responsible way, which led to reconciliation and consensus among all parties. The production unit of “Kamen Rider” finally reached an agreement with NHK and resumed production progress.
Perhaps this episode happened, so Chiba Shiro privately said that he admired Tsuyoshi Sasaki more than Fujioka. Except that he shouldered the heavy responsibility of 85 episodes, Fujioka’s more than ten episodes and the atmosphere of a horror movie are actually not popular yet. The program changed its style and added new actors, and Tsuyoshi Sasaki also happened to reap the bonus. After all, the brighter color scheme of the old number 2 and the change in shooting style were originally modified for number 1 Fujioka. It was just God’s will that Fujioka was injured. Hirayama Toru didn’t want the hero to die, so Kamen Rider 2 was born!
Not only Shiro Chiba praised Tsuyoshi Sasaki, but Masaru Okada, the slayer master of Ohno Kanyoukai, also said that Tsuyoshi Sasaki was the most skilled among all the Kamen Rider protagonists in history! I even want him to take full responsibility for the action scenes.
From the 14th to the 52nd episode, it was mostly Go Sasaki who supported the entire show by himself, even performing the action scenes before and after the transformation himself (stunts were not necessarily used in every scene at that time).
Fans and the industry often say for this reason: “Without Sasaki Tsuyoshi, the “Kamen Rider” series might have been cut in half long ago!”
At the time, he was working on three dramas, one of which was filmed in Osaka, so his schedule was very tight. The pressure was so great that he once suffered from round baldness and had to wear a wig on stage. In order to hide this, he often wears a hat or a helmet to transform in the play.
Since he did not have a tram driver’s license when filming began, the early riding scenes had to be “fixed on a truck and then shot.” Afterwards, he obtained a driver’s license and performed “flying” (flying aircraft) driving techniques.
When Fujioka returned, the producer wanted the two to perform together, but he insisted on keeping his promise and voluntarily resigned to make way for Hiroshi Fujioka. In the process, there are guest appearances until the end of the permanent double knights chapter.
After the end of the Cavaliers, Sasaki often came back to make guest appearances, because he likes to come back and see familiar staff. Many people think that V3 Hiroshi Miyauchi is the Cavaliers with the highest guest appearance rate in history! But someone has made statistics, and Sasaki was the one with the most just now! A total of about 27 times, and Miyauchi Hironori 21 times.
Tsuyoshi Sasaki’s last guest appearance as Kamen Rider as the “Human Body” Ichimonji Hayato was in the 1980 SKY RIDER episode 36 “Emergency Ichimonji Hayato!” Treeにされる人々をsave!!』. SUPER 1, which aired in 1980, did not feature guest appearances by previous knights. Only the theatrical version has all the knights as cameos, but there are no human cameos, only Miyauchi Hiroshi as V3.
The beginning of a tragic life…
In the early morning of February 15, 1982, Sasaki returned to his apartment with his then-wife drunk, and fell asleep without turning off the gas heater. A bath towel that fell from it started a fire, causing the house and the neighboring house to be completely burned down. The fire caused burns to about 70% of his body (including his face), and he was on the verge of life and death several times. He underwent five skin grafting surgeries to save his life, but his face was left with severe scars, which was a fatal blow to his career as an actor. The wife was also slightly injured, but her three children were at her natal home at the time, so they were not affected.
After recovery, due to the damage to the appearance, he did not perform in front of the theater again. He hoped to change his career as a voice actor, and said he was “willing to accept any job like a newbie.” However, because “Tsu Sasaki” had a certain reputation, and because the industry complained that people in front of and behind the scenes were stealing jobs, it was difficult to get hired.
In 1984, he appeared in the TV special “Born on the 10th!” In Kamen Rider All Gathered!!” (Daily Broadcast), he voiced Kamen Rider No. 2, but due to facial burns, he could only perform with his voice. According to Sasaki’s recollection, producer Hiroshi Hirayama didn’t recognize him at all when he passed by.
Even his mentor in the New Chinese Opera advised him to “give up being an actor”, so he left the entertainment industry. In order to repay the cost of treatment and hospitalization and maintain family life, he worked as a security guard, recycled waste paper, sold baked sweet potatoes, sold bamboo poles and other jobs.
There was an urban legend that some gangsters wanted to collect protection money from Sasaki, but were defeated by Sasaki’s own karate and judo skills. However, it was just an urban legend and could not be confirmed.
In order to pay for the huge medical expenses, including home decoration, hospitalization fees and living expenses for his wife and children, Sasaki worked 16 hours a day, doing everything from security, recycling waste paper to snack shop management. During this period, someone recognized his identity, but Sasaki responded: “Ichimonji Hayato has died in the sea of fire…”
Two years later, Tsuyoshi Sasaki’s wife divorced him because she couldn’t bear the life of poverty. Leaving him when he was at his lowest and most difficult, he felt as if he had been abandoned by the whole world. As a result, Sasaki abandoned himself and lived a decadent life of pachinko and alcoholism. He even did not attend his father’s funeral.
In 1991, Sasaki reunited with his friend, singer Ishibashi Shoji. Ishibashi encouraged him to cheer up and return to the stage by saying, “Just try performing for three days.” With the support of other actor friends, he participated in the stage play “Aizu Shitama Gaiden: Yamamoto Kakuma” and successfully returned to his career as an actor. He later admitted that he was under great pressure due to years of absence and even wanted to run away before going on stage, but Masaji Ishibashi encouraged him: “It’s normal to be afraid,” and he finally completed the performance successfully.
Although Sasaki only performed for ten minutes, he cried with joy and truly understood how much he loved performing. After his comeback, he became active in stage plays. Many years later, Tsuyoshi Sasaki’s injuries have fully recovered. When recalling this memory, he laughed at himself: “Now I can be considered a reformed person.” It was not until 1998 that he reflected on the setback of the fire. From then until January 1998, he served as a resident actor and acting teacher Nodairo at “Nikko Edo Village”. In addition to regular stage performances, he was also responsible for guiding young actors. Sometimes stage plays don’t pay well, and Sasaki doesn’t mind zero pay, because that’s where he gets a new lease of life. As he grew older, he used his more existential appearance as a weapon to start a new stage of his career in performing arts activities based on stage plays.
In 1998, Sasaki and Fujioka Hiroshi attended an autograph session at the Toy Fair. A reporter asked Sasaki about his memories of Kamen Rider’s past. Sasaki was moved by the situation and planned to avoid it, but Fujioka Hiroshi who was standing by said sincerely: “Ichimonji, although Kamen Rider He is a lonely warrior, but other Kamen Riders still need your help. Please understand Meng’s mood. The two of them clasped their hands and remained silent. Sasaki also responded to the request of supporters and once again performed the transformation of No. 2 after many years, which moved the whole audience!
Sasaki and Hiroshi Fujioka attended the autograph session at the Toy Fair together. I remember that I bought that Japanese toy magazine. It was the first time I learned about the appearance of these two people after middle age through the magazine. At that time, I only thought that Sasaki had a lot of red skin, and I didn’t know that he had been in a fire accident.
Interestingly, based on my personal interpretation, Fujioka was reincarnated because of the rerun of the original Kamen Rider in 1997. SEGA also approached him to film SEGA Sanshiro, and it was only then that Fujioka realized that “Kamen Rider No. 1” was the character that brought him the reputation of a lifetime career. Except for the audition incident that year, Fujioka only made a guest appearance in V3 that year, and finally in the 39th episode of STRONGER “さようなら!”栄光の7人ライダー! ”, and in the SP episode in front of the Seven People of Emitsu, there is a meeting between the seven people and Tachibana Fujibei. This is a strange scene where Fujioka appears at the beginning of the film, but when the other six people appear, Fujioka is missing. It was rumored at the time that Fujioka had already wanted to get rid of Kamen Rider, and made a “symbolic appearance” to support, but not fully participate. Of course, there are also scheduling issues. At least No. 1234 is on the same stage in the film.
Hiroshi Fujioka, whose popularity has skyrocketed due to the replay of the original Kamen Rider, once publicly asked Toei to play Kamen Rider again, saying that he was confident that he could still handle it physically.
Talking back to Tsuyoshi Sasaki, he is now able to face his past life properly. He occasionally holds year-end parties for drinking and reminiscing with the former Kamen Rider crew. According to his recollection: When they were on location in Hokkaido, the door of the hotel where they stayed read “Linda Yamamoto and her entourage” hanging on the door!
Why? Because Kamen Rider had not yet aired in Hokkaido at that time, the budget was tight, and the popularity was not high. In order to borrow the venue for free, they lied that it was “Miss Linda’s concert” so that the hotel could cooperate.
This incident seriously hurt Sasaki’s self-esteem as the protagonist. After he returned to Tokyo, he went to have a drink with Yusaku Uchida, the director of the Ikuta studio at the time, and said what was on his mind: “If you don’t have money, just say it! I will cooperate!”
── Then at 6:30 the next morning, I went to Izu to shoot “Amazonia” on location. It turned out that he drank too much the day before and didn’t wake up until 9 o’clock (miserable)
He called Director Uchida, expecting to be scolded, but the director said: “It’s okay, there should be many areas on the scene that can be filmed first.”──It turned out that the director was also drunk and could not scold him (laughing)
After arriving at the scene, he went to apologize to Director Yamada, but the director shouted “Just~~!!” and pinched his neck (hilarious)
Later, he learned wisely and thought, “If I drink with the director, I won’t be scolded”!
One of the female characters in Kamen Rider is “Yuri” (played by Okiwako). Before Sasaki joined “Kamen Rider”, she had acted and decided to participate in the debut work “Red Lightning” starring Okiwako. This is a story about an Okinawan empty-handed girl. At that time, Sasaki was to play her brother, and the two met, but the role was changed for some reason before filming started.
Later, Miss Oki joined the crew of “Kamen Rider” and Sasaki loved her like a younger sister. Sasa also smiled and said, “We even walked around and went shopping in Ginza together♪”
Mr. Sasaki said that he has always wanted to see her again and is currently looking for news about her through various channels. Hope he does find her.
Speaking of female riders, Kyoko Okada, who played Yuriko Misaki in “Kamen Rider Stronger”, had a good personal relationship. When she died of asthma at the age of 27 in 1986, Sasaki was deeply affected. 1986 was also Sasaki’s lowest ebb.
Since 2003, he has also voiced Hayato Ichimonji for the PS2 game “Kamen Rider: Genealogy of Justice”. This game is a collaboration between Kamen Rider, V3, BLACK, and AGITO across time and space. It is worth mentioning that all the two riders in the game are voiced by unofficial actors in the show, and only number two is voiced by the real Tsuyoshi Sasaki. This is also the first time he has voiced No. 2 after 19 years since he voiced ZX in 1984. In 2011, he once again voiced Kamen Rider 2 in the movie “OOO Den-O All Riders Let’s Go Kamen Rider”.
Sasaki said that after meeting a fan who watched “Kamen Rider” when he was a child, he felt that “if I just gave up my career as an actor, I would be sorry for the fans who supported me.” So he made up his mind not to run away and to live in a way that would not betray his fans.
In 2012, in order to give back to his fans and fellow performers who supported him, he opened the izakaya “バッタもん” in Oyama Higashi-cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo. This name echoes the “Locust” theme of “The Masked Rider”. This store is not a store that is rented out in name only, but Tsuyoshi Sasaki himself cooks and runs the entire store.
On May 7, 2016, he remarried on his 69th birthday
Thoughts on “New Kamen Rider” (2023)
He was once invited to watch “New Kamen Rider” directed by Hideaki Anno, and said bluntly: “This is an alternative work that makes people uncomfortable. If you want to do something new, just start it from scratch.”
But he also affirmed the performance of Yu Emoto, who played the second role: “He successfully presented the bright character written by Shotaro Ishinomori.”
Postscript: I used to think that Fujioka was the greatest Showa knight. The old No. 1 wore a leather suit himself to perform, and then came back after being injured. Even in his old age, he still remains strong and loves Kamen Rider. But later, Tsuyoshi Sasaki saw a Japanese talking about Chiba Shiro’s dictation on IG. After integrating the information he had read before, he realized that Sasaki is a rare person! He became famous early, but he was indifferent to fame and fortune. He quit after agreeing to Fujioka’s comeback. He managed 85 episodes. Kamen Rider’s popularity was actually started by him! But in the end the honor belongs to Fujioka. He was disfigured by a fire in his middle age, which not only ruined his acting career, but also left his wife. I once gave up on myself and slept in a stall where I roasted sweet potatoes instead of going home. Finally, I regained my confidence by performing on stage again…
Even though Sasaki Tsuyoshi is not as beautiful as Hiroshi Fujioka in his old age, he remarried in his later years and his skin is completely healed! Opening a izakaya and living a happy life with fans, it’s a peaceful life.
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