(born October 12, 1954, in

Obihiro, Hokkaido is a city in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Obihiro is the only designated city in the Tokachi area. As of February 29, 2020, the city has an estimated population of 165,851. The next most populous municipality in Tokachi is the adj ...

) is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

actress. She graduated from St. Margaret's Junior College in

Suginami, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The ward refers to itself as Suginami City in English. As of June 1, 2022, Suginami has an estimated population of 588,354 and a population density of 17,274 persons per km2. The total area is 34.06 km2 ...

. From 1985 to 1999, she was a costar in the TBS prime-time television series ''

Ōoka Echizen is a prime-time television ''jidaigeki'' in Japan. From March 16, 1970 to March 15, 1999, 402 episodes and 15 seasons were broadcast. Also, a two-hour special aired on March 20, 2006, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the '' National Geki ...

'' in the role of Yukie, the wife of

Ōoka Tadasuke was a Japanese samurai in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune, as a magistrate (''machi-bugyō'') of Edo, his roles included chief of police, judge and jury, and Yamada Magistrate ( Yamada bugyō) prio ...

. She has also appeared in many other ''

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hel ...

'', including ''

Gokenin Zankurō is a novel by Renzaburō Shibata. The protagonist of this ''jidaigeki'' is Matsudaira clan, Matsudaira Zankurō, a low-ranking gokenin in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate. He lives with his mother Masajo in the shogunal capital of Edo. Other ...

'', ''

Mito Kōmon is a Japanese ''jidaigeki'' or period drama that was on prime-time television from 1969 to 2011, making it the longest-running ''jidaigeki'' in Japanese television history. The title character is the historic Tokugawa Mitsukuni, former vice-''sh ...

'', and ''

Abarenbō Shōgun (Abarenbō Shōgun) was a Japanese television program on the TV Asahi network. Set in the eighteenth century, it showed fictitious events in the life of Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa ''shōgun''. The program started in 1978 under the title '' ...

''. Stage roles have included ''Akai Tsuki'', ''Nemuri Hime'', ''Koi Yamabiko'', ''Benkei'', ''Shishi o Kau – Rikyū to

Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

'', ''

Zenigata Heiji , usually called and formerly Heiji Zenigata VII, is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in ''Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. He is named after the famous fictional Japanes ...

'', ''Kawaite Sōrō'' and many others. As a voice actress, she dubbed the mother in ''

Doogie Howser, M.D. ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'' is an American medical sitcom that ran for four seasons on ABC from September 19, 1989, to March 24, 1993, totaling 97 episodes. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the show stars Neil Patrick Harris in the titl ...

'', Amy Hasting in an episode of ''The New

Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...

'', and Abigail Bartlet in ''

The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the ...

''. Taira has also appeared in films, and in television commercials for Yōmeishu and Kao. She is married to filmmaker Rintaro Mayuzumi (m. 1989), the son of composer

Toshiro Mayuzumi Toshiro Mayuzumi (黛敏郎 ''Mayuzumi Toshirō'' ; 20 February 1929 – 10 April 1997) was a Japanese composer known for his implementation of Avant-garde music, avant-garde instrumentation alongside traditional Japanese musical technique ...

and actress Yōko Katsuragi.

References

External links

Yahoo! Japan page
1954 births Living people Actors from Hokkaido Japanese film actresses Japanese stage actresses Japanese television actresses Japanese voice actresses People from Obihiro, Hokkaido 20th-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese actresses {{japan-stage-actor-stub