was a Japanese actress mainly active in the 1950s, who appeared in films of

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily Shoshimin-eiga, shōshimin-eiga ("common people drama") films with f ...

Kinuyo Tanaka was a Japanese actress and film director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 acting credits, but was best known for her 15 films with director Kenji Mizoguchi, such as ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952) and ''Ugetsu'' (1953). W ...

and

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 '' Bushido, Samurai Saga'' (1963). Life Although leaning towards left-win ...

Biography

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

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. In 1945 she graduated from a Japanese high school in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. After returning to Japan in 1947, Sugi auditioned at

Toho is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...

studio's "New Face" competition and received a contract. She gave her debut in Tadashi Imai's 1949 '' Aoi sanmyaku'', and 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. She repeatedly appeared in films of Mikio Naruse such as '' Repast'', '' Husband and Wife'' (Sugi's only starring role in a Naruse film, replacing Setsuko Hara) and '' Sound of the Mountain'', and in Kinuyo Tanaka's '' The Eternal Breasts'' and '' The Moon Has Risen''. In 1962, Sugi married an American, retired from the entertainment industry, and moved to the United States, where she worked at the New Otani Hotel in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Occasionally returning to Japan, she appeared in films like

Shirō Toyoda was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed over 60 films during his career which spanned 50 years. He was denoted for his high-quality adaptations of works of many important twentieth-century Japanese writers. Career Born in Kyo ...

's '' The Twilight Years''. 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 age ...

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

in Tokyo.

Filmography (selected)

* '' Aoi sanmyaku'' (1949) * '' Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka'' (1950) * '' Repast'' (1951) * ''Tokyo Sweetheart'' (1952) * '' Husband and Wife'' (1953) * '' Sound of the Mountain'' (1954) * '' Onna no Koyomi'' (1954) * '' The Eternal Breasts'' (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 his mother in the family's house, where the couple runs a not-too-successful food store. Although their marriage is not happy, it is pragmatic ...

'' (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 46 feature films in a career spanning five decades. He is acknowledged as the most internationally successful Japanese filmmaker prior t ...

'' (1957) * '' The Twilight Years'' (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 Actresses from Tokyo People from Bunkyō