Daisuke Ryu was a Japanese actor born in Tokyo, Japan on 14 February 1957. He won the Japanese "best new actor" Blue ribbon award for his performance as the legendary warrior Oda Nobunaga in Akira Kurosawa's movie Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior). Other notable performances include Saburo Ichimonji in the famous Kurosawa epic Ran and the legendary warrior monk Benkei in Sogo Ishii's critically acclaimed Gojoe (Gojō reisenki or The Spirit war chronicle).