Masashi Ishibashi

, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Ishibashi had an extensive career in Japanese television, where was famous as portraying villains in historical dramas, in roles such as bad lieutenants, shifty merchants, yakuza, bandits, and corrupt priests. Ishibashi had significant presence in television productions like NHK's Taiga drama series, The Unfettered Shogun, Hissatsu series and . He also had frequent roles in various 1970s and 1980s Tokusatsu TV series, most notably in Super Sentai series. His movie career was mostly specialized in martial arts movies and crime dramas. One of his best known starring roles in the west is the role of the villain Tateki Shikenbaru, a.k.a. "Junjo", in the Sonny Chiba vehicle The Street Fighter. Biography Born in Hualien City, in Taiwan during the Japanese rule His father is a professional soldier and he has two younger brothers. At the end of the war, he repatriated to Yanagawa, Fukuoka, and lived there until he graduated from . Later, he graduated from Nihon University College of Art, Department of Drama. In 1956, at the same time as graduating from university, he joined a Bungakuza-affiliated Theater Institute and went on to become an actor. Eventually, he became a member of the Bungakuza theater company proper, but he also worked as greengrocer, a pachinko parlor clerk, and a laborer on the side. As Ishibashi had been practicing Goju-Ryu style of Karate since he was a school student, he was hired by Mas Oyama as a Karate Instructor for his Oyama Dojo and the Kyokushin Kaikan, earning his living expenses that way as well.