If you get off the Seibu Railway train at Higashi-Murayama station, a gateway to the suburban Tokyo city of the same name, you will be greeted by a somewhat surreal statue of a feudal lord in kimono giving a chin-level salute. It might leave you puzzled if you don’t know the context, but a majority of the Japanese public is likely to take it as a touching tribute to a superstar. The statue is dedicated to Ken Shimura, a famed comedian and TV personality, who was born in 1950 in…
