Sayuri Yoshinaga

Sayuri Yoshinaga
Born	(1945-03-13) March 13, 1945 (age 79) Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1957–present

Sayuri Yoshinaga (吉永 小百合, Yoshinaga Sayuri, born 13 March 1945) is a Japanese actress and activist. She has won four Japan Academy Best Actress awards, more than any other actress, and has been called "one of the foremost stars in the postwar world of film."^[1]

Her first media appearance was in the radio drama "Akado Suzunosuke" in 1957, and she has been one of the most popular actresses in Japan since the 1960s, with fans called "Sayur-ists" (Sayurisuto) - for example, Akiyuki Nosaka and Tamori.^{[citation needed]}

She made a contract with the movie corporation Nikkatsu and played the lead role in many of its films. In 1962, Yoshinaga played a junior-high school girl in her most famous film, "Foundry Town", and got the Japan Record Award for "Itsudemo Yume wo" (Always Keep the Dream) with the male singer Yukio Hashi. In the 1970s and 1980s, Yoshinaga appeared in films made by other companies, as well as in TV drama serials, commercials, and talk shows. After this period, she returned to films and she has featured in commercials for some big companies such as Sharp Aquos, Nissey and Kagome. She has been awarded the Japan Academy Prize four times. Yoshinaga has appeared in 124 films, mostly in the leading role.^[2] Yoshinaga starred in Kon Ichikawa's Ohan and The Makioka Sisters.^[3][4] She also starred in Yoji Yamada's Kabei: Our Mother and About Her Brother.^[5][6]

In 2012, she starred in Junji Sakamoto's A Chorus of Angels.^[7]

Yoshinaga graduated from Waseda University, the Schools of Letters, Arts and Sciences II in 1969. Under a tight schedule, she took the runners-up value in the school among the graduates in that year. In 1973, she married Taro Okada, a TV director worked in Fuji Television, keeping her maiden name "Yoshinaga" as her stage name. She has no children.^{[citation needed]}

From the 1980s, after playing Yumechiyo in TV drama, a hibakusha geisha by Atomic bombings of Hiroshima, she has worked for the anti-nuclear movement. Her most well-known action is reading the poems about atomic bombs over 20 years, and she worked without guarantees for voice guidance in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. She is also famous for supporting a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) club, Seibu Lions. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the former owner of this team is a fan of Yoshinaga, and she bought a pension from Tsutsumi's Seibu Railway group.^{[citation needed]}

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1960	Kenju burai-chō Denkō Setsuka no Otoko	Dan Noriko
1960	Mutekiga Ore o Yondeiru	Hamazaki Yukiko
1962	Foundry Town	Jun	Lead role
1963	Izo no Odoriko		Lead role
1966	The Hearth of Hiroshima		Lead role
1968	Monument to the Girls' Corps		Lead role
1971	Men and War Part II	Yoriko Godai		[8]
1972	Tora-san's Dear Old Home	Utako
1973	Men and War Part III	Yoriko Godai		[9]
1974	Tora-san's Lovesick	Utako
1978	August Without the Emperor
1980	Dōran
1983	The Makioka Sisters	Yukiko Makioka
1984	Station to Heaven		Lead role
	Ohan	Ohan	Lead role
1985	Yumechiyo	Yumechiyo	Lead role	[10]
1987	Film Actress	Kon Ichikawa	Lead role
1988	A Chaos of Flowers	Akiko Yosano	Lead role
1992	Gekashitsu		Lead role
1993	Yearning		Lead role
1998	Diary of Early Winter Shower		Lead role
2000	Nagasaki burabura bushi		Lead role
2001	Sennen no Koi Story of Genji	Murasaki Shikibu	Lead role
2005	Year One in the North		Lead role
2008	Kabei: Our Mother		Lead role
2010	About Her Brother		Lead role
2012	A Chorus of Angels		Lead role
2014	Cape Nostalgia		Lead role
2015	Nagasaki: Memories of My Son	Nobuko Fukuhara	Lead role	[11]
2018	Sakura Guardian in the North	Tetsu Ezure	Lead role	[12]
2019	The Bucket List	Sashie Kitahara	Lead role	[13]
2021	A Morning of Farewell	Sawako Shiraishi	Lead role	[14]
2023	Mom, Is That You?!	Fukue	Lead role	[15]
2025	Teppen no Mukou ni Anata ga Iru	Junko Tabe	Lead role	[16]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1970	Momi no Ki wa Nokotta	Uno	Taiga drama	[17]
1976	Kaze to Kumo to Niji to	Takako	Taiga drama	[18]
1981–84	The Diary of Yumechiyo	Yumechiyo	Lead role; 3 seasons	[19]

• 1961: Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year^[20]
• 1962: Japan Record Award
• 1984: 9th Hochi Film Award - Best Actress for Ohan and Station to Heaven^[21]
• 1985: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
• 1986: Kinuyo Tanaka Award
• 1989: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
• 1997: Japan Record Award for Concept
• 2001: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
• 2006: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
• 2006: Medals of Honour with Purple Ribbon
• 2010: Person of Cultural Merit
• 2015: Kikuchi Kan Prize

Media related to Sayuri Yoshinaga at Wikimedia Commons

• Sayuri Yoshinaga at IMDb
• Sayuri Yoshinaga at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)