Yamazaki joined Bungakuza in 1959. He made his film debut in Kihachi Okamoto`s Daigaku no sanzôkutachi in 1960. In 1963, he appeared in Akira Kurosawa's High and Low. He worked with Kurosawa twice more: in the director's next film, 1965's Red Beard, then fifteen years later, in Kagemusha.