Minamida Yoko

[Aaron Gerow]

The wideshows this morning were replete with stories on the death of  
the actress Minamida Yoko. She passed away on the 21st of a  
subarachnoid hemorrhage at the age of 76. Minamida entered Daiei in  
1951 and first came to fame appearing in the "Seiten" (sex book)  
series with Wakao Ayako. She moved to Nikkatsu in 1955, the same year  
she appeared in Season of the Sun (Taiyo no kisetsu), the first of the  
sun tribe or taiyozoku films that brought Ishihara Yujiro to fame. But  
her co-star in that film was Nagato Hiroyuki, whom she eventually  
married in 1961. This brought her into the royal family of Japanese  
cinema, since Nagato's grandfather was Makino Shozo, the "father" of  
Japanese cinema (who discovered many of the great jidaigeki stars such  
as Onoe Matsunosuke and Bando Tsumasaburo); his parents Sawamura  
Kunitaro (who appears in The Pot Worth a Million Ryo, and is the  
brother of Kato Daisuke, of Kurosawa fame) and Makino Tomoko, an  
actress in her own right; his uncle, the great jidaigeki and yakuza  
film director Makino Masahiro; and his brother, the actor Tsugawa  
Masahiko, who has recently been directing films using the name Makino  
Masahiko.

Minamida's relationship with Nagato tended to overshadow her acting  
career, even though she appeared in a wide variety of films, my  
favorite being Kawashima Yuzo's Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate  
(Bakumatsu taiyoden, 1957). She also was a major star on television,  
both in dramas and variety shows such as Music Fair, which she co- 
hosted with Nagato for 16 years, and Quiz Derby.

She one published a book about taking care of her bedridden father-in- 
law, so it was perhaps ironic that when she started suffering from  
dementia, Nagato took care of her. This became the subject a  
television documentary and other media.

Minamida was one of my more favorite actresses: bright, quick, strong  
and witty, if a bit melodramatic at times. She's worth another look.


Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Associate Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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