Yōko Sugi (杉葉子) (October 28, 1928 – May 15, 2019) was a Japanese actress who performed major roles in films like ''

Aoi sanmyaku is a 1949 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Tadashi Imai was a Japanese film director known for social realist filmmaking informed by a left-wing perspective. His most noted films include ''An Inlet of Muddy Water'' (1953) and ''Bushid ...

'' and '' Repast''.

Early life

Sugi was born on October 28, 1928 in what is now Bunkyo,

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. In 1945 she graduated from a Japanese high school in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Career

After returning to Japan in 1947, Sugi entered the second Toho New Face competition. She joined

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

after winning the competition. She soon gained popularity as a calm and refined actress. Her first film was ''

,'' which released in 1949. Sugi performed in several other

coming of age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

films, and became known for them. In 1962, Sugi married an American, retired from the entertainment industry, and moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. She worked at the New Otani Hotel in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Occasionally returning to Japan, she appeared in films like ''

The Twilight Years ''The Twilight Years'', a 1972 Japanese novel by Sawako Ariyoshi, sold over a million copies in her home country and was praised by the Japan-studies community in foreign countries as a singular novel, "the closest representation of modern Japanes ...

''. She served as a Japanese Cultural Envoy to the United States for the

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

in 2005. Sugi moved back to Japan in 2017. She died on May 15, 2019 of

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...

in Tokyo.

Filmography

*''

'' (1949) *'' Repast'' (1951) *''Tokyo Sweetheart (1952) *'' Husband and Wife'' (1953) *''

The Sound of the Mountain is a novel by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, serialized between 1949 and 1954, and first published as a standalone book in 1954 by Chikuma Shobō, Tokyo. Plot Shingo Ogata, a 62-year-old businessman living in Kamakura and working in Tokyo, ...

'' (1954) *''

Onna no Koyomi is a 1954 Japanese film directed by Seiji Hisamatsu based on the short story collection by the Japanese woman writer Sakae Tsuboi. It was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Cast * Kinuyo Tanaka as Michi Saeki * Yōko Sugi as Kuniko Hy ...

'' (1954) *''

The Eternal Breasts , also titled ''Forever a Woman'', is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by actress Kinuyo Tanaka. It is based on the life of tanka poet Fumiko Nakajō (1922–1954). Plot Unhappily married Fumiko, mother of two children, divorces her drug-ad ...

'' (1955) *'' The Moon Has Risen'' (1955) *''

A Wife's Heart is a 1956 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. Plot Kiyoko lives with her husband Shinji and Shinji's mother in the family's house, where the married couple runs a not-too-successful food store. Although their marriage is not happy, it i ...

'' (1956) *''

A Rainbow Plays in my Heart is a 1957 black and white Japanese film directed by Ishirō Honda was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 44 feature films in a career spanning 59 years. The most internationally successful Japanese filmmaker prior to Hayao Miyazaki, his film ...

'' (1957) *''

'' (1973) *''

Picture Bride The term picture bride refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers (chiefly Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean) in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil selecting brides from their nat ...

'' (1994)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sugi, Yoko 2019 deaths 1928 births People from Tokyo Japanese actresses