Tramp Honoured in Kyoto

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]Yomiuri: Kyoto show to feature Chaplin's ties with Japan
About 150 photographs of movie legend Charles Chaplin (1889-1977) and 500 letters sent to him from leading figures in the Japanese film industry will be exhibited at a symposium on the film star and comedian to be held next month in Kyoto...The photos show Chaplin with Japanese people during the Taisho (1912-1926) and Showa (1926-1989) eras. Chaplin visited Japan four times, and his famous cane was made in Shiga Prefecture. The photos include one of Chaplin taken with Japanese actress Yaeko Mizutani when she visited his studio in Hollywood and one with Prime Minister Makoto Saito when Chaplin visited Japan for the first time in 1932...Mizutani, who watched the filming for an hour, later told a newspaper that Chaplin "worked like hell" and his strong conscience as an artist moved her to tears...Chaplin first visited Japan in May 1932 and was scheduled to visit Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai when an attempted coup was orchestrated on the 15th by a group of young military officers, in which Inukai was assassinated. Some say Chaplin narrowly escaped death

[Mulboyne]

I thought I'd posted this link before but I can't find it anywhere so, at risk of duplication:

Honolulu advertiser: Charlie Chaplin's Japanese connection

...Chaplin's films and Tramp character carved a lasting place in Japanese culture, and new evidence of a little-discussed relationship with his longtime Japanese assistant is offering fresh opportunities to explore one of the most perused lives of the 20th century...Toraichi Kono, a Japanese national who had settled in California...went to work as the star's driver in 1916 and was, for the next 18 years if you believe his most enthusiastic Japanese supporters, one of the comedian's closest confidants...The FBI had another view. They thought Kono became a Japanese spy after he left Chaplin's employ in the mid-1930s. In the run-up to Pearl Harbor, with Japanese-American tensions rising, they caught Kono meeting with Japanese naval officers looking for information about U.S. deployments. He was arrested, released and then quickly interned after the attack...

...Chaplin called Kono his secretary in the fleeting references he made to him in his 1964 autobiography (although that's not unusual — plenty of people close to the star, including his second wife, never got a mention by name either). He also had minor roles — as a chauffeur — in three Chaplin films, although he was credited in just one: 1917's "The Adventurer." But Ono sees Kono, who died in 1971, as much more than a gofer: He was Chaplin's gatekeeper. Although Ono says the relationship between the men was "never warm," he cites dozens of letters intended for Chaplin but addressed to Kono as evidence that the Japanese assistant was the man you had to go through to get to the star. Kono had such control over Chaplin's domestic arrangements, Ono argues, that at one point in the mid-'20s, all 17 male workers at the actor's estate were Japanese. And it was Kono, he says, who encouraged his boss to visit Japan for the first time in 1932 and cultivated a love in Chaplin for everything from Japanese literature to tempura...more...

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Chaplin's Japanese 'shadow' focus of Cannes exhibition

An exhibition featuring Charlie Chaplin's Japanese secretary, who was called the comedy king's "shadow," will be held in Cannes, France, in May to coincide with the city's international film festival. About 100 items, including letters and photos depicting the close relationship between the secretary, Toraichi Kono (1885-1971), and the British-born comic actor will be on display with the help of Hiroyuki Ono, the head of the Chaplin Society of Japan. Born in Hiroshima, Kono went to the United States at age 15 and was employed by Chaplin as his chauffeur. He gradually gained the actor's trust and became his secretary. He even was allowed to sign the actor's checks while serving in the post for 13 years.

Ono, 35, of Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, began research on the secretary about five years ago. Chaplin was a legendary but moody actor who might fire anyone at a moment's notice if they got on his nerves. After visiting Kono's relatives and acquaintances and looking through a massive amount of materials at Chaplin's former residence in Italy, Ono published the book "Chappurin no Kage" (Chaplin's Shadow), through Kodansha Ltd., last year. Because of the book, David Robinson, president of the Charlie Chaplin research foundation in Britain, asked Ono to get involved with the Cannes exhibition featuring the secretary. Ono agreed to help plan the event and contribute materials he had collected.

Among the items to be exhibited is a photograph of Kono and Chaplin taken while the actor is putting on his signature fake moustache. The picture is very rare because Chaplin did not like to be photographed while applying his makeup. A copy of a letter addressed to Chaplin after Kono quit working as his secretary also will be on display. It was rumored that Chaplin fired Kono because he was disliked by one of the actor's girlfriends.

Although it was said that afterward the two did not keep in touch, the letter shows that Kono asked Chaplin for funds to help him with a business enterprise. "Chaplin seems to have agreed to help Kono," Ono said. "It's new proof of how much Chaplin trusted him."