Kazuko Yoshiyuki

Kazuko Yoshiyuki (吉行和子, Yoshiyuki Kazuko) (born 9 August 1935) is a Japanese actress, voice actress and essayist.

Kazuko Yoshiyuki
in Geino Shunjusha, 1962
Born	(1935-08-09) 9 August 1935 (age 89) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1958–present
Parent(s)	Eisuke Yoshiyuki Aguri Yoshiyuki
Relatives	Junnosuke Yoshiyuki (brother) Rie Yoshiyuki (sister)

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

Film

• My Second Brother (1959) - as Kanako Hori
• Foundry Town (1962) - as a factory worker
• Lady Snowblood (1974) - as Aya Tokunaga
• Empire of Passion (1978) - as Seki
• Kaerazaru hibi (1978)^[1]
• Chizuko's Younger Sister (1991)
• Kikujiro (1999) - as a grandmother of Masao
• Taboo (1999) - as Matsu
• Lily Festival (2001) - as Rie Miyano
• Tsuribaka Nisshi 15 (2004) - as Nobuko Fukumoto
• J-Horror Theater Yogen (2004) - as Satoko Mikoshiba
• Kamataki (2005) - as Kariya Sensei
• Wool 100% (2006) - as Kame
• Maiko Haaaan!!! (2007) - as Satsuki
• Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007)
• Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008) - as Toki (voice actress)
• Cyborg She (2008) - as a grandmother of Jiro
• Departures (2008) - as Tsuyako Yamashita
• 20th Century Boys (2008) - as mother of Moroboshi
• Koitanibashi (2011)^[2]
• Yuriko, Dasvidaniya (2011) - as Yoshie Chujyo
• The Love and Death of Kaoru Mitarai (2013) - as Kaoru Mitarai
• Tokyo Family (2013) - as Tomiko Hirayama
• When Marnie Was There (2014) - as Nanny (voice actress)
• The Firefly Summers (2016)
• The Book Peddler (2016) - as Tome Miyoshi
• What a Wonderful Family! (2016)^[3]
• What a Wonderful Family! 2 (2017)
• Miracles of the Namiya General Store (2017)
• Ajin: Demi-Human (2017) - as Yamanaka
• Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura (2017)
• What a Wonderful Family! 3: My Wife, My Life (2018)
• A Forest of Wool and Steel (2018) - as Kiyo Tomura
• The Landlady (2019)
• Photograph of Memories (2021)^[4]
• The Cinematic Liars of Asahi-za (2021) - as Hideko Matsuyama^[5]
• Somebody's Flowers (2022)^[6]
• Life in Bloom (2022)^[7]
• Yudo: The Way of the Bath (2023)^[8]
• Ai no Komuragaeri (2023)^[9]
• Push Pause (2024)^[10]
• Diamonds in the Sand (TBA)^[11]
• Kaneko Fumiko: Because I Wanted to (2026)^[12]

Television

• Kaze to Kumo to Niji to (1976) - as Kera
• Tokugawa Ieyasu (1983) - as Nene
• Aguri (1997) - as Masako Hirayama
• The Sniffer (2016)

Honours

• Kinuyo Tanaka Award (2002)^[13]