Ken Takakura's adopted daughter cremated him before his family knew he had died, and inherited his estate and film rights

Ken Takakura, born Oda Takeichi, made 205 films. In 2013 he adopted Takatsuki Oda, a former actress 33 years younger who had lived with him since 1997^†. As his adopted child she became his heir. He died of malignant lymphoma on 10 November 2014. Oda arranged a private cremation at the Yoyohata crematorium in Tokyo. His relatives in Fukuoka, including his younger sister Toshiko Mori, learned of the death two days later, when a nephew phoned his company and was told the cremation was under way. According to the relatives, they asked Oda for part of the ashes for the family grave at Shokakuji temple in Nakama; she dealt with them only through lawyers, offered only to lend the ashes, and said she had scattered them under his will, which they say she never showed them. Oda inherited his property and the rights to many of his films. At his seventh memorial, Toho chairman Yoshishige Shimatani gave Takakura's sister a portion of the ashes he held. In 2024 a portion kept by Takakura's former secretary was also returned. In November 2025 his sister, then 90, left Nakama to live with her children in Tokyo.