Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Kazuko Yoshiyuki | |
|---|---|
| Born | 9 August 1935 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1958 – present |
Kazuko Yoshiyuki (born 9 August 1935) is a Japanese film actor and essayist.
Biography
Early life
Kazuko was born in Tokyo as a first daughter of Eisuke Yoshiyuki, a writer, and Aguri. She has an older brother, Junnosuke Yoshiyuki, a novelist, and a sister, Rie Yoshiyuki, a poet.
A lifelong sufferer of asthma since she was two years old, she was frequently taken as a child to Okayama, where her grandparents lived, for a change of air. She graduated from Joshigakuen Girls High school in Tokyo in 1954.
Career
She started her career as an actress with theatre troupe Gekidan Mingei in 1955, appearing in the role of Sophie in Junji Kinoshita's A Japanese Called Otto in 1966. Her major breakthrough on the stage came when she played Anne Frank in "The Diary of a Young Girl" in 1977.
She made her debut on the screen in 1955 and has appeared in more than 60 films since then. She won Best Supporting Actress award in 1959 Mainichi Film Award, then won Best Actress in 1978 Japan Academy Prize for her role in the film Empire of Passion.
She has also appeared in more than a hundred different Japanese television dramas.
Selected filmography
- Foundry Town (キューポラのある町, Kyūpora no aru machi) (1962) - as a factory worker
- Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姫 怨み恋歌, Shurayukihime urami koiuta) (1974) - as Aya Tokunaga
- Empire of Passion (愛の亡霊, Ai no bōrei) (1978) - as Seki
- Kikujiro (菊次郎の夏, Kikujiō no natsu) (1999) - as a grandmother of Masao
- Taboo (御法度, Gohatto) (1999) - as Matsu
- Lily Festival (百合祭, Yurisai) (2001) - as Rie Miyano
- Tsuribaka Nisshi 15 (釣りバカ日誌15 ハマちゃんに明日はない!?, Tsuribaka Nisshi 15 Hama-chan ni asu wa nai!?) (2004) - as Nobuko Fukumoto
- J-Horror Theater Yogen (Jホラーシアター 予言, J Horā shiatā Yogen) (2004) - as Satoko Mikoshiba
- Maiko Haaaan!!! (舞妓Haaaan!!!, Maiko Haaaan!!!) (2007) - as Satsuki
- Glory to the Filmmaker! (監督・ばんざい!, Kantoku·Banzai!) (2007)
- Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (崖の上のポニョ, Gake no ue no Ponyo) (2008) - as Toki (voice actress)
- Cyborg She (僕の彼女はサイボーグ, Bokuno Kanojowa saibōgu) (2008) - as a grandmother of Jiro
- Departures (おくりびと, Okuribito) (2008) - as Tsuyako Yamashita
- 20th Century Boys (20世紀少年, Nijisseiki Shōnen) (2008) - as mother of Moroboshi
- Yuriko, Dasvidaniya (百合子、ダスヴィダーニヤ) (2011) - as Yoshie Chujyo