Kane Kosugi

Kane Kosugi (ケイン・コスギ, Kein Kosugi), born Takeshi Kosugi (小杉 健, Kosugi Takeshi, born October 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California), is an American martial artist and martial arts actor of direct Japanese and Chinese descent. He is the son of martial arts film star Sho Kosugi. In Japan, Kosugi is considered gaijin tarento (foreign talent) due to his Nisei (second generation foreign born) heritage.

Since 1983, Kosugi has appeared in various roles as a voice actor for video games, stunt actor in movies, and character actor in both English-language and Japanese-language films. His first movie, Revenge of the Ninja, had him playing the son of his real life father, Sho Kosugi. Kane kept his real name in the movie. He has also been in other movies starring his father as well. With the intention of following in his father's footsteps, Kane trained to become a martial arts actor. Kane has an extensive martial arts background in wushu, ninjutsu, taekwondo, karate, judo and kendo.

He made his Japanese acting debut in the 1993 television series Ryūkyū no Kaze (Dragon Spirit), the 31st entry in NHK's long-running taiga drama series. Kane followed this up with his first lead role in the two-part Toei V-Cinema movies Za Kakuto Oh (The Fighting King) and Za Kakuto Oh 2 (The Fighting King 2) directed by his father. Next came the 1994 television series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, an installment in Toei Company's Super Sentai franchise. Kane was the only American-born cast member of Kakuranger and his character (Jiraiya) spoke almost exclusively in English during his first few episodes.

He could be seen regularly on the NHK children's program Karada de Asobo (体で遊ぼ), which was a weekday exercise show that ran until March 2010. He also does commercial spots for vitamin drinks and regularly appears on a physical challenge show called Kinniku Oukoku (筋肉王国), formerly known as Kinniku Banzuke. He had a brief role as a Yakuza member in the action-thriller, War, with Jason Statham and Jet Li.

Kane then began to work in China and Hong Kong. He played Ryu Hayabusa, a master Ninja in the live action adaptation of the video game DOA: Dead or Alive, directed by Corey Yuen. He would play the lead villain in Coweb, the directorial debut of Xiong Xin-Xin and the lead role debut of Luxia Jiang. In 2011, he appeared alongside real-life best friend Sammy Hung and Sammy's father, Sammo Hung in Choy Lee Fut.

In 2013, Kane played the lead villain Nakamura in the film Ninja: Shadow of a Tear opposite Scott Adkins. The two reunited on the upcoming film Zero Tolerance. Kane would also play the character of Kazuya Mishima in the prequel Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge in 2014.

Kane competed on Kinniku Banzuke/Oukoku's special show Sasuke (known in America as Ninja Warrior) for several years (from 1997 - 2001). Thus far he is one of only three foreigners, and the only American, to make it to the Final Stage, out of 3,000 total competitors to date and twenty-four different Final Stage competitors. Despite his strong performances, #98 is the highest number he has ever worn.

He stopped participating after the 8th competition. Around the time of SASUKE 11, in an interview with the Kinniku Banzuke successor, Taiku Ookoku, he said, "私は訓練に時間があれば、私は競争したいと思います。", which roughly translates to, "If I have time to train, I would like to compete." Kane is still the only competitor to compete five times without failing the first stage. He was the first competitor to beat the Spider Climb in the final stage, doing so in Sasuke 8.

A few years later, it was revealed that Kane quit Sasuke after a feud with the company running the company at the time. He was featured in a Sasuke related video game, but the company had not asked for Kane's permission and after the case was not settled in court, he vowed to never compete in Sasuke again, although he was invited for Sasuke 30 he refused to compete.

Here is a table of information of his participation in Sasuke.

Kane was born in Los Angeles, California as the eldest of three siblings. His parents are legendary Ninja film actor Sho Kosugi, who is Japanese; and Shook Kosugi, who is Chinese. Kane has a brother, Shane (born 1976), who made occasional appearances on Kinniku Banzuke (known on G4 as Unbeatable Bansuke) as well as appear as Kane's younger brother in some of their father's ninja films in the 80's; and a sister, Ayeesha (born 1983), who is a golfer and senior at University of Las Vegas. He was romantically involved with female golfer Riko Higashio, but broke up in 2005 when they seemed on the verge of marriage. In December 2009, Kane married a woman from Hong Kong.

Rift with father

Kosugi and his father are seemingly no longer on speaking terms due to Kane choosing a career in Japanese television instead of helping to run some of his schools under the banner of his institute, and even taking some of Sho's staff with him. In reference to Kane, Sho was reported as saying on a television show with fortuneteller Kazuko Hosoki in April 2007, "My son is a coward!" (息子は卑怯だ, Musuko wa hikyō da), saying Kane "stabbed me in the back" and at one point made a reference to Judas Iscariot. However, Sho was seen at Kane's wedding in late 2009, indicating that they are reconciling or already have.

• Revenge of the Ninja (1983)
• The Master, "A Place to Call Home" (1984) - Television (1 episode)
• 9 Deaths of the Ninja (1985)
• Pray for Death (1985)
• Black Eagle (1988)
• Journey of Honor (1991) aka Kabuto, aka Shogun Mayeda
• Dragon Spirit (1993) television series (16+ episodes)
• The Fighting King (1994)
• The Fighting King 2 (1994)
• Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (1993) - television series regular (all 13 episodes)
• Ninja Sentai Kakuranger (1994) - television series regular (51 episodes)
• Super Sentai World (1994) - movie
• Toei Hero Daishugō (1994) - movie
• Legend of St. Dragon (1996) - television series regular (all 10 episodes)
• Cat's Eye (1997)
• Who Am I? (1998)
• Street Fighter Zero: The Animation (1999) Japanese voice actor for Ryu.
• Muscle Heat (2002)
• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
• DOA: Dead or Alive (2006) Ryu Hayabusa
• War (2007)
• Fujiko F. Fujio's Parallel Space (2008) - television (1 episode)
• Tokumei Kakaricho Tadano Hitoshi (2009) - television (1 episode)
• Coweb (2009)
• Timeless (2009)
• Baton (2009)
• Choy Lee Fut (2011)
• Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013)
• Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge (2014) Kazuya Mishima
• Zero Tolerance (2015)
• Terra Formars (2016)

• "Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge Blu-ray". blu-ray.com. Retrieved 2014-08-11.