Shinobu Otake (大竹 しのぶ, Ōtake Shinobu, born 17 July 1957) is a Japanese actress. She has won three Japanese Academy Awards: the 2000 Best Actress award for Railroad Man, and the 1979 awards for both Best Actress for The Incident, and Best Supporting Actress for Seishoku no ishibumi. She also won the award for best actress at the 12th Hochi Film Award for Eien no 1/2.[1] At the 25th Moscow International Film Festival she won the award for Best Actress for her role in Owl.[2] She has received a total of 12 nominations.
She was the favoured lead actress of director Kaneto Shindo after his previous lead actress, Nobuko Otowa, died in 1994, and featured in four of his films from Will to Live in 1999 to Postcard in 2011.[3]
Otake has also acted on the stage. She performed during the last segment of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Closing Ceremony along Tokyo’s Suginami Children Chorus, singing the song "Hoshimeguri no Uta" (Star Tour Song) composed by Kenji Miyazawa, as the Olympic flame was extinguished.[4] In 2021, Otake took the lead role of Dr. Ruth Wolff in a Japanese stage adaptation of The Doctor.[5]
^「君たちはどう生きるか」ストーリー、声優、主題歌が明らかに [Story, voice actors, and theme song revealed for "How Do You Live?"]. Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. 14 July 2023. Archived from the original on 14 July 2023. Retrieved 14 July 2023.