Nobuko Otowa (乙羽 信子, Otowa Nobuko, 1 October 1924 – 22 December 1994) was a Japanese actress who appeared in more than 100 films between 1950 and 1994.
Life and career
A graduate of Takarazuka Girl's Opera School, Otowa was first signed to Daiei studios, before becoming a freelance actress by the early 1950s.[2][3] After starring in Kaneto Shindo's Story of a Beloved Wife, she became the director's mistress and appeared in nearly all of his following films. She finally married him in 1977, after his previous wife divorced him.[4] Although closely associated with Shindo's films, with Children of Hiroshima, The Naked Island and Onibaba being among the most well-known, Otowa also worked for noted directors such as Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Heinosuke Gosho, Keisuke Kinoshita and Nagisa Ōshima. Devoted to her profession, she frequently wrote and lectured on the art of film acting.[2]
In 1995, she was posthumously awarded as best actress in a supporting role at the 19th Japan Academy Prize for A Last Note, having been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer during its production.[5][6] Half of her ashes are scattered on the island of Sukune in Mihara, Hiroshima, where The Naked Island was filmed.[7]
