. Oe left us a striking portrait of young Itami in his book of essays published in 1995
Oe tells how the writer Ryotaro Shiba described Itami admiringly as an ijin, which means a person "who is different from the norm; a superior person . . . A person who practices mysterious arts; a wizard, a foreigner" (Kirkup, 1997, 16). When Oe met itami, the latter was already embroiled in a battle with the administration over the compulsory uniform rule for the school. Oe reported that his friend suffered from a sense of infringement on his human rights. Itami was unable to attend a university after he was expelled from school, meaning he could not sit for the university entrance exam. He then went to work as an illustrator (Kirkup, 1997, 16).
Itami moved to Tokyo in 1960 and went to work for the Daiei movie company as an actor, and there he specialized in supporting roles. In that year, he also married Kazuko Kawakita. He left Daiei in 1961 and went to work writing literary essays, much as his father had done. He continued acting and played small parts in Nicholas Ray's 1963 film 55 Days at Peking and in Richard Brooks's 1965 film Lord Jim. Itami joined the Nikkatsu Movie Company in 1964 and continued playing supporting parts in a number of movies, including Nagisa Oshima's 1967 Nippon shunka ko and Kon Ichikawa's 1975 adaptation of Soseki Natsume's classic Wgahai wa nako dearu. Itami's acting career improved when he appeared in Yoshimitsu Morita's 1983 box office success Kazoku Gemu (Family Game), which was also successful on the international circuit. Itami then won acting awards for best supporting actor, and he also received an Emmy for his role of Prince Genji in a television series (Kirkup, 1997, 16).
Itami turned to directing in 1984 with Ososhiki (Funeral), a satirical comedy about the conventions of Japanese funeral ceremonies. Itami's second wife Nobuko
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