Sato Koichi's father Mikuni Rentarou passes away

Sato Koichi's actor-father Mikuni Rentarou passed away on 14 April at the age of 90 years old. When Sato appeared at the production press conference of his new drama "Kaibutsu" which is also the 55th anniversary production for Yomiuri TV on 15 April, he was asked about his father's demise where he revealed the details. According to Sato, Mikuni died due to acute respiratory failure at 9.18am on the previous day and had told his son that he didn't want a posthumous Buddhist name nor use his real name Sato Masao on his tomb nor wanted his son to inform anyone of his passing even after scattering his ashes. With regard to this, Sato commented that his father liked his identity as actor Mikuni Rentarou so much that he wanted to leave this world using this name.

Sato mentioned that he had only planned to make the news known after his father's body is cremated but the news came out earlier than expected. As such, he was prepared to talk about the facts surrounding his father's death during the press conference today. Actually, his father had been well up till evening on the day before yesterday but started vomiting after dinner. The following day (14 April), he had his breakfast but still threw up which led to his blood pressure shooting up and him dying two hours after that. As Sato was at home when Mikuni passed away, he did not get to see his father for the last time but he was more or less prepared for this day since Mikuni was already 90 and in poor health. The last time when he met his father was in early April before he headed to New York for the filming of his new movie where he dropped by at the hospital where Mikuni was staying at. The two of them chatted casually during that last meeting. Sato said that he was consoled by the fact  that Mikuni died with a dignified look on his face which was something not seen during the last couple of years so he didn't cry when he saw his father. When asked about his thoughts about Mikuni, Sato simply commented that he wasn't a typical father.

Source: Mantan Web / Eiga.com

 According to Wikipedia, Sato is Mikuni's son from his third marriage (he was married to four women and was romantically linked to a number of actresses). Things between Sato and Mikuni were not so good initially especially during Sato's younger days. They first appeared in the 1986 movie "Ningen no Yakusoku" but had no scenes together. In 1996, they worked together in the movie "Oishinbo" and had argued openly during the press conference while addressing each other very politely as "Mikuni-san" and "Sato-kun" in public. They later appeared in a ANA CM in 2008 looking as if things were fine between them and Sato commented during a 2009 episode of "Tetsuko no Heya" that he thought that his father was a hardworking person. Maybe because of the turbulent relationship he shared with his father which seemed to have improved later on, that's why Sato commented that Mikuni wasn't considered a typical father to him. Of course, the fact that Mikuni was a well-known veteran actor could also be why he wasn't typical.