Japanese actor whose portrayal of Zatoichi, a blind master swordsman, in a series of motion pictures and on television brought him fame and influenced similar films in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Katsu was perhaps the most popular star in Japanese screen history, starring in 25 Zatoichi films from 1962 to 1973. He occasionally worked as a producer—for example, for the American documentary Ali: The Man Behind the Myth (1975), which profiled the life of boxer Muhammad Ali (Ali, Muhammad).