Unshō Ishizuka
Japanese voice actor, narrator, director (1951-2018)
Unshō Ishizuka (石塚 運昇, Ishizuka Unshō; May 16, 1951 – August 13, 2018) was a Japanese actor, voice actor, narrator and theatre director from Katsuyama, Fukui. He was affiliated with Aoni Production at the time of his death and was known for providing the voice of both the narrator and Professor Oak/Dr. Yukinari Okido on the Japanese anime series Pokémon. In addition to that, he regularly appeared in both the Japanese and English-language versions of the Pokémon anime, voicing Onix, Steelix and numerous other Pokémon.
Ishizuka was known for his deep, strong voice and was often cast in the role of older mature male characters, such as Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop, Eugene Gallardo from Tales of Rebirth and Captain Matthews in the Xenosaga trilogy. He was also the Japanese dub voice of Captain Gantu in every version of Lilo & Stitch to date. He was also the fourth Japanese voice of Heihachi Mishima in the Tekken video game series, and the second Japanese voice for Mr. Satan in the Dragon Ball franchise, taking over both roles since the death of longtime actor Daisuke Gōri. He has voiced the roles of Kizaru in the One Piece series, Van Hohenheim in the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood series, Zabuza Momochi in the Naruto series, Ginzo Nakamori in Detective Conan and Magic Kaito, Older Joseph Joestar in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, as well as Bunta Fujiwara in Initial D, Ryotaro Dojima in Persona 4 and Ujiyasu Hōjō in Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi. Ishizuka was also the famous voice-over actor for Liam Neeson, Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Unshō Ishizuka” as japanese voice actor, narrator, director (1951-2018). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as japanese voice actor, narrator, director (1951-2018). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1351041. VIAF identifies the subject as 168982663. The Library of Congress control number is no2011049722. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951 and 2018.
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This entry incorporates text from “Unshō Ishizuka” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.