Kazuko Yoshiyuki

Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Yoshiyuki in 1962
Born	(1935-08-09)9 August 1935 Tokyo, Japan
Died	2 September 2025(2025-09-02) (aged 90) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1958–2025
Parent(s)	Eisuke Yoshiyuki Aguri Yoshiyuki
Relatives	Junnosuke Yoshiyuki (brother) Rie Yoshiyuki (sister)

Kazuko Yoshiyuki (吉行和子, Yoshiyuki Kazuko; 9 August 1935 – 2 September 2025) was a Japanese actress, voice actress and essayist.

Life and career

Early life

Kazuko Yoshiyuki 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

Yoshiyuki 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.

Yoshiyuki also appeared in more than a hundred different Japanese television dramas.

Death

Yoshiyuki died from pneumonia in Tokyo, on 2 September 2025, at the age of 90.^[1]

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)^[2]
• Chizuko's Younger Sister (1991)
• Kikujiro (1999) – as the 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 the grandmother of Jiro
• Departures (2008) – as Tsuyako Yamashita
• 20th Century Boys (2008) – as mother of Moroboshi
• Koitanibashi (2011)^[3]
• 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)^[4]
• 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)^[5]
• The Cinematic Liars of Asahi-za (2021) – as Hideko Matsuyama^[6]
• Somebody's Flowers (2022)^[7]
• Life in Bloom (2022)^[8]
• Yudo: The Way of the Bath (2023)^[9]
• Ai no Komuragaeri (2023)^[10]
• Push Pause (2024)^[11]
• Diamonds in the Sand (2024)^[12]
• Kaneko Fumiko: Because I Wanted to (2026)^[13]

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)^[14]

References

1. Actress Kazuko Yoshiyuki Dies at The Age of 90
2. "帰らざる日々". Nikkatsu. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
3. "恋谷橋". eiga.com. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
4. "家族はつらいよ(2016)". allcinema (in Japanese). Stingray. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
5. "おもいで写眞". eiga.com. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
6. "浜の朝日と嘘つきどもと". eiga.com. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
7. "誰かの花". eiga.com. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
8. "世の中にたえて桜のなかりせば". eiga.com. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
9. "生田斗真主演、映画『湯道』"銭湯"に吉田鋼太郎、夏木マリ、柄本明ら大集合". Oricon. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
10. "愛のこむらがえり". eiga.com. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
11. "ココでのはなし". eiga.com. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
12. "リリー・フランキー主演「Diamonds in the Sand」新映像が公開、孤独死をめぐる物語". Natalie (in Japanese). Retrieved 24 November 2024.
13. "金子文子 何が私をこうさせたか". eiga.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 July 2025.
14. "田中絹代賞とは". Tanaka Kinuyo Memorial Association. Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2021.

External links

• Kazuko Yoshiyuki at IMDb
• Kazuko Yoshiyuki discography at Discogs