is a Japanese actress who has appeared in about 100 films and many TV productions. She is married to

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

Masahiro Shinoda is a retired Japanese film director, originally associated with the Shochiku Studio, who came to prominence as part of the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s. Early life Shinoda attended Waseda University, where he studied theater and also partici ...

, in whose films she has frequently appeared. She won the award for best actress at the 2nd

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''. ...

for her performance in Shinoda's ''

Ballad of Orin is a 1977 Japanese film directed by Masahiro Shinoda. Its alternate English-language titles are ''Banished Orin'' and ''Symphony in Gray''. It details the life of a ''goze'', a blind female minstrel (played by Shima Iwashita, the director's wife) ...

''.

Heritage

Iwashita was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Her father was the actor and film producer Kiyoshi Nonomura （野々村潔）(1914-2003). Her maternal aunt Shizue Yamagishi （山岸しづ江）was married to the

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to ...

actor Kawarasaki Chōjūrō IV （四代目　河原崎長十郎）(1902-1981), who starred in

Sadao Yamanaka was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed 26 films between 1932 and 1938. He was a contemporary of Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi and one of the primary figures in the development of the ''jidaigeki'', or historic ...

's 1937 '' Humanity and Paper Balloons'', one of the most influential early Japanese talkies, and was one of the founders in 1931 of the Zenshinza Theatre Company （劇団前進座）.

Education

After attending No 3 Municipal Primary School and No 3 Municipal Middle School in Musashino City to the west of Tokyo, Iwashita proceeded first to

Metropolitan Musashi High School then Myōjō Gakuen High School before entering the Arts Faculty of Seijo University, which she left before taking a degree.

Career

In a career lasting (so far) 60 years, Iwashita has appeared in some 40 TV productions (1958-2014) and about 100 films (1960-2003). She made her TV debut in 1958 in the daytime drama serial ''Basu-dōri ura'' （バス通り裏: ''Just Off the Main Street''）. Her first film role was in

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasu ...

's 1960 ''The River Fuefuki'' （笛吹川: ''Fuefukigawa''）. She remained with the production company

Shōchiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not ...

from then until 1976. Also in 1960, she had the small part of a young woman at a reception desk in

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...

's '' Late Autumn'' （秋日和: ''Akibiyori''）. Ozu again cast her as

Chishū Ryū was a Japanese actor who, in a career lasting 65 years, appeared in over 160 films and about 70 television productions. Early life Ryū was born in Tamamizu Village, Tamana County, a rural area of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu, the most south ...

's daughter Michiko in the 1962 ''

An Autumn Afternoon is a 1962 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu for Shochiku Films. It stars Ozu regular Chishū Ryū as the patriarch of the Hirayama family who eventually realises that he has a duty to arrange a marriage for his daughter Michiko (Shim ...

'', his last film (he died shortly after completing it). According to the critic Nobuo Chiba, Ozu had Iwashita in mind for a role in the film he was preparing at the time of his death, ''Radishes and Carrots'' （大根と人参: ''Daikon to ninjin''）(Nobuo Chiba, ''Ozu Yasujirō and the 20th Century'': 千葉信夫,「小津安二郎と２０世紀」, p. 337) In an article in the 12 October 2011 edition of the weekly magazine ''Shūkan Shinchō''（週刊新潮）, Iwashita was quoted as saying that whenever she is abroad she is still very frequently asked about Ozu. In 1986, she starred in ''Gokudō no onnatachi'' （極道の妻たち: ''

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...

Wives''）, which turned out to be the first in a series of (so far) 16 immensely popular films. (Up to 2013: Iwashita has not appeared in all of them.) Iwashita has appeared in a large number of commercials for a variety of products. For many years she was the face of the Nippon Menard Cosmetic Company. Iwashita has been married to the director Masahiro Shinoda since 1967.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Stage

On stage, Iwashita played Desdemona to the Othello of Keita Asari (浅利慶太) .

Honours

*Kinuyo Tanaka Award (1988) *

Medal with Purple Ribbon are medals awarded by the Government of Japan. They are awarded to individuals who have done meritorious deeds and also to those who have achieved excellence in their field of work. The Medals of Honor were established on December 7, 1881, and we ...

(2004) *Guinness Book of World Records for longest modeling contract (2010) * Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (2012)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Iwashita, Shima 1941 births Living people People from Tokyo 20th-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese actresses Taiga drama lead actors Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class