is a Japanese actress, voice actress,

tarento Television personalities in Japan, known as in Japanese, are celebrities who regularly appear in mass media in Japan, especially as panelists on variety shows. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, bankable stars in America were described as " ...

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

advisor, and

Goodwill Ambassador Goodwill ambassador is a post-nominal honorific title, a professional occupation and/or authoritative designation that is assigned to a person who advocates for a specific cause or global issue on the basis of their notability such as a publ ...

for

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

. She is well known for her charitable works, and is considered one of the first Japanese celebrities to achieve international recognition. In 2006,

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also di ...

referred to Kuroyanagi in his book ''Japanese Portraits: Pictures of Different People'' as "the most popular and admired woman in Japan."

Early life

Kuroyanagi was born in

Tokyo City was a municipality in Japan and part of Tokyo-fu which existed from 1 May 1889 until its merger with its prefecture on 1 July 1943. The historical boundaries of Tokyo City are now occupied by the Special Wards of Tokyo. The new merged gove ...

Tokyo Prefecture 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 ...

(now

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

). Her father was a violinist and a concertmaster. Her nickname as a child was Totto-chan, according to her 1981 Autobiographical memoir.

Education

Kuroyanagi studied at the

Tokyo College of Music is a private music school in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded as in Kanda, Tokyo, in 1907. History The college moved to Toshima in Tokyo in 1924 after the original campus was destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake. Some notable gra ...

, majoring in

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

, as she intended to become an

opera singer Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

.Walker, Jame
BIG IN JAPAN Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
from '' Metropolis Magazine'' After graduation, however, she was drawn to acting and the

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

industry by her joining Tokyo Hoso Gekidan. Subsequently, she became the first Japanese actress who was contracted to

Japan Broadcasting Corporation , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

(NHK).

Career

After voicing Lady Penelope in the ''Thunderbirds'' TV series, Kuroyanagi first became well known in 1975 when she established her afternoon

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, which was the first

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...

on Japanese television. The show was broadcast by the private television channel Television Asahi, and featured Kuroyanagi's discussions with celebrities from various fields, including television, sport and politics.Gender, Language and Culture: A Study of Japanese Television Interview Discourse
Book by Lidia Tanaka. Limited preview at Google Books. Tetsuko's Room was very successful, and Kuroyanagi started to be referred to as a "phenomenon" in Japan, in contradiction to the image of "servile" and "wifely" women on Japanese television". Statistics show that, by the early 1990s, Kuroyanagi had interviewed over two thousand Japanese and foreign guests. It is acknowledged that her warmness as an interviewer and skilled art of talking is a factor that made the TV program live long.Famous People of Japan: Tetsuko KUROYANAGI
Teaching materials. Archive by Institute for Japanese Studies, at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. She is also familiar to Japanese audiences with her regular appearance on the television quiz show "World Mysteries".Limp prose from an angel of mercy
from

The Japan Times Online ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

. 1981 marked a turning point in her career, as Kuroyanagi published her children book '' Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window'', in which Kuroyanagi wrote about the values of the unconventional education that she received at Tomoe Gakuen elementary school during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and her teacher Sosaku Kobayashi. The book is considered her

childhood A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

, and upon release, it became the bestselling book in Japanese history.Little Girl at the TV Window
from ''

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...

'' The book was first translated to English in 1984 by

Dorothy Britton Dorothy Guyver Britton, Lady Bouchier MBE (14 February 1922 – 25 February 2015) was born in Yokohama and went to the Yokohama International School, moved to the United States at the age of 11, and was educated in the United States and England, ...

, and it was published in more than 30 countries.

Charitable works

Koichiro Gemba and Tetsuko Kuroyanagi 20120705 1

Kuroyanagi is known internationally for her charitable and

fund raising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

works. She founded the Totto Foundation, named for the eponymous and autobiographical protagonist of her book ''Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window''. The Foundation professionally trains deaf actors, implementing Kuroyanagi's vision of bringing theater to the deaf. In 1984, in recognition of her charitable works, Kuroyanagi was appointed to be a

for

, being the first person from

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

to hold this position. During the late 1980s and the 1990s, she visited many

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

for charitable works and goodwill missions, helping children who had suffered from disasters and war as well as raising international awareness of the situations of children in poor countries. Her visit to

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

in 1989 was the first recorded VIP visit from Japan to this country, and marked a milestone for the diplomatic relation between Japan and

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. Kuroyanagi has raised more than $20 million for the UNICEF programmes that she has been involved in, through television fund-raising campaigns.http://www.unicef.org/ar98/ar98eng3.pdf. She also used the royalties from her bestselling book, Totto-chan, to contribute to UNICEF. Kuroyanagi also participated in the international UNICEF ‘Say Yes for Children’ campaign, along with other celebrities. In 1997, Kuroyanagi published the book "Totto-chan's Children", which was based on her experience working for as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador from 1984 to 1996. Kuroyanagi is a director of the Japanese branch of the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

. Kuroyanagi has twice brought America's National Theater of the Deaf to Japan, acting with them in sign language. "Distinctions Blur as Deaf Actors Share a Stage,"
''New York Times.'' August 29, 1988.

Honours

For her involvement in media and television entertainment, Kuroyanagi won the Japanese Cultural Broadcasting Award, which is the highest television honour in Japan. Since then, she has been voted 14 times as Japan’s favourite television personality, for the show Tetsuko’s Room. In 2000, Kuroyanagi became the first recipient of the Global Leadership for Children Award, which was established by UNICEF in the 10th anniversary of the 1990

World Summit for Children The United Nations World Summit for Children was held in the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on 29–30 September 1990. The summit had the then-largest-ever gathering of heads of state and government to commit to a set of goals to impr ...

. In May 2003, Kuroyanagi received Order of the Sacred Treasure in recognition of her two decades of service for the world’s children.UNICEF
Goodwill Ambassador Kuroyanagi
/ref>

Filmography

This is a partial list of films. * '' Thunderbirds'' (voice actor) (1965-1966) - Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (Japanese dub) * '' Jack and the Witch'' (voice actor) (1967) * '' Breaking of Branches Is Forbidden'' (voice actor) (1968, dir.

Kihachirō Kawamoto was a Japanese puppet designer and maker, Independent film, independent film director, screenwriter and animator and president (corporate title), president of the Japan Animation Association from 1989, succeeding founder Osamu Tezuka, until his ...

)Tetsuko Kuroyanagi - The cinema review of all(Database Only)
/ref> * '' Summer Soldiers'' (1972)Tetsuko Kuroyanagi - Trailer - Showtimes - Cast - Movies - The New York Times
/ref> * '' Anne no Nikki'' (The Diary of Anne Frank) as Mrs. Petronella Van Daan (voice actor) (1995) * '' The Book of the Dead'' (voice actor) (2005)

References

External links

*
Official Homepage as Totto channel

Homepage for Tetsuko's Room
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuroyanagi, Tetsuko 1933 births Living people Japanese non-fiction writers Japanese philanthropists Japanese radio personalities Japanese television personalities Japanese television presenters Japanese women television presenters Japanese film actresses Japanese television actresses Japanese voice actresses Japanese women essayists Persons of Cultural Merit Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors Voice actresses from Tokyo World Wide Fund for Nature 20th-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese actresses