is a Japanese actress and activist. She has won four

Japan Academy The Japan Academy (Japanese: 日本学士院, ''Nihon Gakushiin'') is an honorary organisation and science academy founded in 1879 to bring together leading Japanese scholars with distinguished records of scientific achievements. The Academy is c ...

Best Actress awards, more than any other actress, and has been called "one of the foremost stars in the postwar world of film."

Career

Her first media appearance was in the radio drama "Akado Suzunosuke" in 1957, and she has been one of the most popular actresses in Japan since the 1960s, with fans called "Sayur- ists" (''Sayurisuto'') - for example,

Akiyuki Nosaka was a Japanese novelist, singer, lyricist, and member of the House of Councillors. As a broadcasting writer he used the name and his alias as a chanson singer was . Early life Nosaka was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, the son of Sukeyuki Nosak ...

and

Tamori , known by his stage name (an anagram of his surname), is a Japanese television celebrity. Known for his trademark dark sunglasses, Tamori is one of the "big three" television comedians in Japan along with Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takeshi ...

. She made a contract with the movie corporation

Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...

and played the lead role in many of its films. In 1962, Yoshinaga played a junior-high school girl in her most famous film, "

Foundry Town is a 1962 Japanese drama film directed by Kirio Urayama. It was entered into the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and won the Blue Ribbon Awards in 1962. Cast * Sayuri Yoshinaga as Jun * Mitsuo Hamada as Tsukamoto, Katsumi * Eijirō Tōno as Ishigur ...

", and got the Japan Record Award for ''"Itsudemo Yume wo"'' (Always Keep the Dream) with the male singer Yukio Hashi. In the 1970s and 1980s, Yoshinaga appeared in films made by other companies, as well as in TV drama serials, commercials, and talk shows. After this period, she returned to films and she has featured in commercials for some big companies such as

Sharp Aquos The Sharp Aquos is a product brand name for LCD televisions and component screens, originally sold by Sharp Corporation of Japan and also used by licensees. History It encompasses small, portable models (e.g. the 13" B series) up to large h ...

, Nissey and Kagome. She has been awarded the Japan Academy Prize four times. Yoshinaga has appeared in 123 films, mostly in the leading role. Yoshinaga starred in

Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary ''Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won t ...

's ''

Ohan Ohan is a common masculine Armenian name and can be used as a nickname for Hovhannes or Ohannes. Ohan may refer to: People * Ohan Durian (1922–2011), Armenian conductor *Mikho-Ohan, pen name of Armenian writer Nar-Dos Films * ''Ohan'' (film ...

'' and ''

The Makioka Sisters is a novel by Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki that was serialized from 1943 to 1948. It follows the lives of the wealthy Makioka family of Osaka from the autumn of 1936 to April 1941, focusing on the family's attempts to find a husband fo ...

''. She also starred in

Yoji Yamada is a Japanese film director best known for his ''Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series of films and his Samurai Trilogy (''The Twilight Samurai'', ''The Hidden Blade'' and '' Love and Honor''). Biography He was born in Osaka, but due to his father's job ...

's ''Kabei: Our Mother'' and ''About Her Brother''. In 2012, she starred in

Junji Sakamoto is a Japanese film director. Career After working as a set assistant or assistant director under such filmmakers as Sogo Ishii and Kazuyuki Izutsu, he made his directorial debut in 1989 with '' Dotsuitarunen'' (earning the Directors Guild of Ja ...

's ''A Chorus of Angels''.

Character

Yoshinaga graduated from

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

, the Schools of Letters, Arts and Sciences II in 1969. Under a tight schedule, she took the runners-up value in the school among the graduates in that year. In 1975, she married Taro Okada, a TV director worked in

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially b ...

, keeping her maiden name "Yoshinaga" as her stage name. She has no children. From the 1980s, after playing Yumechiyo in TV drama, a

hibakusha ''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at th ...

geisha {{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha {{nihongo, Geisha, 芸者 ({{IPAc-en, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ʃ, ə; {{IPA-ja, ɡeːɕa, lang), also known as {{nihongo, , 芸子, geiko (in Kyoto and Kanazawa) or {{nihongo, , 芸妓, geigi, are a class of female ...

by Atomic bombings of Hiroshima, she has worked for the

anti-nuclear movement The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, natio ...

. Her most well-known action is reading the poems about atomic bombs over 20 years, and she worked without guarantees for voice guidance in the

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is a museum located in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, in central Hiroshima, Japan, dedicated to documenting the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II. The museum was established in August 1955 with the ...

. She is also famous for supporting a

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB) club,

Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, w ...

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi is a Japanese businessman. During the Japanese economic bubble, ''Forbes'' listed Tsutsumi as the wealthiest person in the world during 1987–94 due to his extensive real estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled. ...

, the former owner of this team is a fan of Yoshinaga, and she bought a pension from Tsutsumi's

Seibu Railway is a conglomerate based in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan, with principal business areas in railways, tourism, and real estate. Seibu Railway's operations are concentrated in northwest Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture; the name "Seibu" is an abbrevi ...

group.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Awards

* 1961:

Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year The Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year is an award given at the Elan d'or Awards The are awards presented annually by the All Nippon Producers Association (ANPA) in Japan to recognize outstanding achievements in domestic motion picture ...

* 1962:

Japan Record Award is a major music awards show, held annually in Japan that recognizes outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association. Until 2005, the show aired on New Year's Eve, but has since aired every December 30 on TBS Japan at 6:30 P.M JST a ...

* 1984: 9th

Hochi Film Award The are film-specific prizes awarded by the ''Hochi Shimbun , previously known as , is a Japanese-language daily sports newspaper. In 2002, it had a circulation of a million copies a day. It is an affiliate newspaper of ''Yomiuri Shimbun''. ...

- Best Actress for ''

'' and '' Station to Heaven'' * 1985: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role * 1986: Kinuyo Tanaka Award * 1989: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role * 1997: Japan Record Award for Concept * 2001: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role * 2006: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role * 2006: Medals of Honour with Purple Ribbon * 2010:

Person of Cultural Merit is an official Japanese recognition and honor which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions. This distinction is intended to play a role as a part of a system of support measures for the promotion of ...

* 2015:

Kikuchi Kan Prize The honors achievement in all aspects of Japanese literary culture. It was named in honor of Kikuchi Kan. The prize is presented annually by the literary magazine ''Bungei Shunjū'' and the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature. Histor ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshinaga, Sayuri Japanese actresses 1945 births Living people People from Tokyo Waseda University alumni Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Persons of Cultural Merit People from Shibuya