, known professionally as , was a Japanese actress and stage director. She and her husband, playwright

Kunio Shimizu (17 November 1936 – 15 April 2021 ) was a Japanese playwright. Niigata is his hometown, which is located on the Japan Sea. At Tama University of Fine Arts Shimizu was a professor working in the Moving Images and Performing Arts Department. Lif ...

, were co-founders of the stage company Mokutōsha.

Biography

Kazuko Shimizu was born on 9 August 1935 in Tokyo. and educated at Ohtani Gakuen and the Haiyuza Theatre Company training school. She joined the Mingei Theatre Company in 1959. After her debut in Kiyomi Hotta's 1954 production of ''Shima'', Matsumoto began appearing in stage productions, including Jukichi Uno's production of '' Three Sisters''. In 1976, she and her husband

were among the co-founders of the stage company Mokutōsha, where she later worked as a leading actor and in the 1990s began working as a director. Her last performance was at the June 2001 production of ''Joyū N''. Outside of the stage, also had some film and television credits, including as Fumiko in '' The Warped Ones''. Matsumoto won two : in 1979 for her performances in Mokutōsha's production of ''Gakuya'' and Janjan's production of ''Jochū-tachi''; and in 1984 for her performance in Mokutōsha's production of ''Love Letter: Ai to Hi no Seishin Bunseki''. She was awarded a 1987 Award for her performance at . Following a month of hospitalization, Matsumoto died on 26 March 2014 of interstitial pneumonia at a hospital in

Setagaya is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood and administrative district within the ward. The ward calls itself Setagaya City in English. Its official bird is the azure-winged magpie, its flower is the fringed orch ...

, aged 78. Her funeral was restricted to close relatives, with Shimizu serving as the chief mourner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matsumoto, Noriko 1935 births 2014 deaths Japanese film actresses Japanese stage actresses Japanese television actresses Actresses from Tokyo 20th-century Japanese actresses Japanese theatre directors Japanese women theatre directors