Hitomi Nozoe

Hitomi Nozoe (野添ひとみ, Nozoe Hitomi; 11 February 1937 – 4 May 1995) was a Japanese actress popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Hitomi Nozoe
Hitome Nozoe in the 1950s
Born	11 February 1937 Ushigome, Japan
Died	4 May 1995(1995-05-04) (aged 58) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actress
Spouse	Hiroshi Kawaguchi ​ ​ (m. 1960; died 1987)​

Career

Nozoe first gained attention^[1] in ingénue roles for Shochiku in films such as Kobayashi's Sincerity (1953), eventually joining Daiei following her appearance in 1955's national "New Faces" studio recruitment drive.^[2] In 1960 she married frequent co-star Hiroshi Kawaguchi, son of writer and Daiei executive Matsutarō Kawaguchi, and both semi-retired from acting within a few years as Kawaguchi became a businessman and reality-TV adventurer.^[3]

Known primarily for demure and innocent roles, Nozoe became a "sensation"^[4] following her star-turn in Masumura's Giants and Toys (1958) as a vivacious tomboy transformed into an overnight celebrity as a confectionery spokesmodel. She is also well known in the West for her brief role as a barber's daughter in Ozu's widely acclaimed Floating Weeds (1959), which Roger Ebert named as one of the ten greatest films of all time.^[5]

In 1988, the year after Kawaguchi's death at age 51 following a long illness with gastric and esophageal cancer, Nozoe published the memoir Hiroshi-san, I Did My Best (浩さん、がんばったね). She continued to write and lecture on the disease, succumbing to thyroid cancer in 1995 at age 58.^[6]

Selected filmography

• Kisses (1957)
• Typhoon Over Nagasaki (1957)
• Giants and Toys (巨人と玩具, Kyojin to gangu) (1958)
• Floating Weeds (浮草, Ukigusa) ( (1959)