Yoshinaga, Sayuri

The early years

Sayuri was born in March 1945, five months before the end of World War II , her life is inextricably linked with the post-war history of Japan . Sayuri’s father, Yoshiyuki Yoshinaga, was born in Kagoshima Prefecture and was an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , and Kazué's mother, who was born on the outskirts of Tokyo, was a piano teacher. Sayuri from childhood instilled a high artistic culture. The first appearance of Sayuri in the media took place at the age of twelve, when she took part in the radio show "Suzunosuke Akado" ( 1957 ) ^[1] . And two years later, the fourteen-year-old Sayuri made her film debut in a secondary role in the film adaptation of Minoru Yoshida's essay “Whistling in the Morning” ( 1959 , directed by Tisato Ikoma).

Movie career

The young debutante signed a contract with the Nikkatsu film company and played a lot of leading roles in it during the 1960s . The screen immediately took the young debutant into her arms, for there were a lot of invitations to act in her first years of work in front of the camera. Only in the 1960s and 1961, the young actress starred in more than twenty films. Her first leading role was the work in the lyric melodrama about the first teenage love “Girl in Glass” (dir. Mitsuo Wakasugi), which was released in the fall of 1960 and was the first of a series of “purely love films” in which she starred with Mitsuo Hamada . Although the New Wave of Japanese Cinema ruled in Japanese cinema in the 1960s, the young actress shone in the simple comedies and melodramas of such regular Nikkatsu artisans as Katsumi Nishikawa , Buichi Saito, Kenjiro Morinaga and others. In many of her early films, she played the role of serious schoolgirls or students who, with their sincere character, are able to become the subject of close attention from the class or group of peers. Among the films that formed this significant side of her image, one can note the drama from school life, “Blue Mountains” ( 1963 , directed by Katsumi Nishikawa), based on the novel of the same name by the writer 1947.

Almost simultaneously with the beginning of her film career, Sayuri also began her career as a singer, recording several singles in those years. And already in 1962, her single “It Doesn't matter When to Dream,” recorded with Yukio Hashi, was awarded the Japan Record Award Grand Prix ^[3] . The disc sold 300,000 copies ^[4] .

The 1960s became the period of greatest success for the Japanese audience for Sayuri Yoshinaga, it was the peak of her popularity - young fans all over the country created dozens of fan clubs , and her fans were called nothing more than “Sayuris” (Sayurisuto). Yoshinaga portrayed purposeful heroines on the screen, which was in tune with the dreams and aspirations of the young generation of the Japanese of that time. Although the Nikkatsu leadership used young talent as girls in entertaining teenage films, she would still be lucky to meet one of the representatives of the “new wave”, the novice director Chiriro Urayama. Sayuri Yoshinaga played in his debut work, the film “ City of hundreds of blast furnaces ” ( 1962 ), the role of the main character, a girl named Jun, daughter of a hereditary metallurgist and was, as they say, in the top ten. Both the film itself and the play of seventeen-year-old Sayuri were greeted with enthusiasm by critics and fellow filmmakers. For the performance of this role, Sayuri Yoshinaga was named the best actress of 1962 at the award ceremony for the Blue Ribbon film award in 1963 . And two years later, in 1965 , the actress was awarded yet another “Blue Ribbon”, then there was a prize of audience sympathy in the nomination “Most Popular” (Most Popular Award).

In 1965, Sayuri Yoshinaga successfully passed the exams and entered Waseda University to study at the Department of History, and also attended optional lectures on literature. Accustomed to the busy schedule of work on the set, the student continued to act in films during her studies, graduating from university in 1969 and taking 2nd place in terms of total points among graduates of that year ^[1] .

When at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, the Nikkatsu film company was on the verge of bankruptcy, many of its regular stars left its ranks. Sayuri Yoshinaga was among them and since 1970 starred in films of other film companies. Although it slowed down a little the pace of work, doing one picture a year, however, this went to the actress only to the benefit. It was during this period that the growth of her professional skills and invitations to shoot by leading screen masters began. During these years, the actress starred with veteran Daiske Ito in the role of Oryo in the historical drama The Fall of the Shogunate ( 1970 ), in the films of the highly social direction of one of the leaders of the "independent", directed by Satsuo Yamamoto "War and People" (II and III parts - 1971 , 1973 ) and August without the Emperor ( 1978 ). Yoshinaga starred in two parts of the popular comedy film series Yoji Yamada about Thora-san, “It Is Hard for a Man to Live” ( 1972 , 1974 ). In 1975, thirteen years after working together on the successful film City of Hundred Domains, she was again invited by director Kiriro Urayama to her new project Youth Gate , where the actress embodied the role of Tayo, the stepmother of the main character Sinske.

In the 1980s, a flurry of awards and nominations fell on Sayuri Yoshinago. In 1981, she was nominated for a Japanese Academy Award for Best Actress in the film "Rebellion" directed by Shiro Moritani . In 1984, she was named the best actress at the Hochi Film Awards for starring in two films, Ohan (director Kon Ichikawa ) and Heaven Station , directed by Masanobu Deme . For the same roles, the following year was awarded the prizes of the Japanese Academy, Kinem Jumpo and Mainity .

At the Yokohama International Film Festival ( 1985 ), Sayuri Yoshinaga received a special prize for her career as a whole, and a year later at the Minichi Film Award Ceremony she was awarded the most prestigious award - the Kinyu Tanaka Award for outstanding career achievements.

In 1986 and 1988, the actress was nominated for a prize by the Japanese Academy for starring in the films " Yumetiyo Diary " ( 1985 , dir. Chiriro Urayama) and "Cinema Actress" ( 1987 , dir. Kon Ichikawa). In 1988, he won the Nikkan Sports Film Awards for performing the best female lead in the film " Riot of Flowers " ( 1988 , dir. Kinji Fukasaku ). 1989 brought the actress the second prize of the Japanese Academy and the title of Best Actress of the Year for her roles in the two films "Riot of Flowers" and " Crane " (1988, directed by Kon Ichikawa). And this is only the 1980s , and then more (see the section "Awards and nominations"). It is enough to mention that the actress has a personal record for the awards she received for the Japanese Film Academy - she won four times and plus twelve nominations. Yoshinaga also won the Blue Ribbon Award three times, the Mainity Competition Award winner twice, and won the Nikkan Sports Film Awards twice.

In the 1970s and 1980s , Sayuri Yoshinaga worked a lot on television, appearing in TV shows and commercials (including for such large companies as Sharp Aquos, Nissey and Kagome), and also took part in various talk shows .

In the 1980s, the classic of Japanese cinema, Kon Ichikawa, will pay attention to her, in which she will star in four films and these roles will be among her best works of that decade.

Since the mid-1980s, after starring in the dramatic film "The Diary of Yumethiyo" ( 1985 , directed by Chiriro Urayama, the film tells about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima ), the actress worked hard for the anti-nuclear movement. For more than twenty years, Sayuri Yoshinaga read poetry for free at the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima , thus showing her civic position. Yoshinaga says: "I want the Japanese to always have an allergy to nuclear weapons in the future." Sayuri Yoshinaga released a disc with poems about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki called "The Second Part." She takes an active part in the Goodbye NPP movement, which began after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant ^[5] .

Among the most interesting works of the actress, made to her in the 1990s - 2000s: the role of Yumiko Minami in the film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi "Mature Women" ( 1994 ); Aihati in the film “Nagasaki’s Careless Melody” ( 2000 , dir. Yukio Fukamati); Sino Komatsubara in The Settlers in the North ( 2005 , dir. Isao Yukisada); two works by Yoji Yamada in the dramas Kabei is Our Mom ( 2008 ) and Younger Brother ( 2010 ); the role of a teacher with Hokkaido Habyo Kawashima in the film “ Northern Canaries ” directed by Junji Sakamoto ( 2012 ). For all these works, Sayuri Yoshinaga was either nominated or was awarded the national film awards in Japan.

Over the course of a long career in cinema, actress Sayuri Yoshinaga has starred in more than 110 films ^[6] , not counting the numerous works on television, and has fans of all ages.

Personal life

Sayuri married television director Taro Okada in 1973 ^[7] . Members of the Yoshinaga family clan were categorically against this marriage, as the spouse is 15 years older than her. The popular movie star Sayuri Yoshinaga has no children.

• In 2006, Sayuri Yoshinaga was awarded the Medal of Honor with a purple ribbon for her services in the field of cinema.
• In 2009, Japan decided to determine the top ten most beautiful Japanese film actresses. According to the results of the voting conducted by the leading Japanese magazine , both readers and authors of the magazine took part in the voting (1043 people took part in the vote), the top ten were: Setsuko Hara , Sayuri Yoshinaga, Hideko Takamine , Kinyu Tanaka , Shima Iwashita , Matiko Kyo , Isuzu Yamada , Ayako Wakao , Keiko Kishi and Sumiko Fuji ^[4] .

^{[1] [8]}

• Sayuri Yoshinaga on the Internet Movie Database
• Okamoto Gen: Sayuri Yoshinaga: “No” to nuclear weapons in any case (“Asahi Shimbun”, Japan) on the website inoСМИ.Ru (Russian)
• Inamasu Tatsuo, Professor at Hōsei University: Yoshinaga Sayuri: Last of the Silver Screen's National Heroines at nippon.com