| “ | It is said in Japan that when a person dies in extreme sorrow or rage, the emotion remains, becoming a stain upon that place. Death becomes a part of that place, killing everything it touches. Once you have become a part of it, it will never let you go. | ” |
—Nakagawa to Karen, The Grudge | ||
Detective Kenichi Nakagawa (中川 Nakagawa) is a character of Ju-on: The Grudge and The Grudge, portrayed by Hirokazu Inoue in Ju-on and Ryo Ishibashi in The Grudge. He and Detective Igarashi started to investigate the deaths of the Tokunaga family (Williams family in The Grudge) with the help of former detective Yuji Toyama who lead the investigation of the Saeki murders but eventually all three came into contact with the curse and taken.
Biography[]
Ju-on: The Grudge (Ju-on timeline)[]
Detective Nakagawa along with his fellow detective, Igarashi, entered the Saeki House after Hirohashi (Rika's boss) found a traumatized Rika and a dead Sachie in the house. They soon found inside the attic the corpses of Katsuya and Kazumi.
Nakawaga went to the hospital where Rika was taken to interrogate her about the murders. Rika tolds him about her encounter with a boy she met inside the closet by the name of Toshio and asks if they found him but he denies and states that the Tokunaga had no children and that the photograph she found belongs to another family.
He reunited with Igarashi to continue the investigation, learning that Katsuya's younger sister, Hitomi, has dissapeared and that a security guard where she works has also died. Igarashi then hands him the reports of the Saeki murders and finds that Toshio went missing five years ago while his parents were dead.
Nakagawa contacts Rika again and tells her what happened to the boy she met in the house. He then joins Igarashi and Yuji Toyama to watch the security tape about Hitomi, but at the same time he and Igarashi leave as he was informed the police found Hirohashi's body, leaving Toyama alone, who was haunted by Kayako inside the tape.
Later, he and Igarashi search for Toyama, who went to the Saeki house to burn it down. When they arrived to the house, they found a disturbed Toyama who was being haunted by Kayako's ghost so they tried to help him but Toyama was so terrified to react and manages to escape, leaving them to be taken by Kayako.
The Grudge (The Grudge timeline)[]
Detective Nakagawa, Igarashi and the police arrive to the house once Alex found Karen and a dead Emma Williams. He interrogated Alex and investigated further with Igarashi in the house only to find not just Matthew's and Jennifer's bodies in the attic but also Yoko's ripped jaw. They assume Matthew killed Jennifer and committed suicide afterwards.
He then interrogates Karen at the hospital, stating that they still didn't find the Japanese boy she met in the house but instead the bodies of the family she has been sent to care of. Igarashi interrupts to inform him that they weren't able to contact Matthew's sister, Susan and that she wasn't in her appartment but strangely found that the chain lock had been drawn from the inside. Nakagawa asks him to get the surveillance tapes from her work. He is later seen watching the tapes on his office but he is soon haunted by Kayako inside them.
Once Karen learns about the murders inside the house three years before the Williams family moved in, she goes to speak with Nakagawa about the connection between the murdered housewife and a university professor who committed suicide the next day after she died. Nakagawa tells her that three of his colleagues went missing or died investigating the case three years ago and concludes indirectly describing to her the Ju-on curse.
With no other options left, he went into the house equipped with some gas cans to burn the house but as he was draining the cans, he got distracted by a vision of Takeo drowning Toshio in the bathtub so he went to rescue him but was attacked by Takeo and was drowned.
The Grudge 2[]
Eason, a journalist, watches a video security footage of Nakagawa after he was haunted by Kayako with the security tape but was haunted by her ghost as well.
Trivia[]
- The Grudge incarnation of Nakagawa has Toyama's role in the history but at the same time, the fate of his three late friends match with the ones of the three detectives from Ju-on.