Kyōko Kishida
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Kyōko Kishida (岸田今日子 Kishida Kyōko?) (April 29, 1930 – December 17, 2006) was a Japanese actress, voice actress, and writer of children's books.
Her father was Kunio Kishida, a playwright and the founder of the Bungaku-za. She became an actress in 1950, and starred in a Yukio Mishima production of Salome (1960). Her film and television drama credits number in the hundreds. Among them are four Taiga drama series on NHK television with roles such as Aguri (the wife of Asano Naganori and Yodo-Dono (the wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi). She appeared in various roles, including acting and narrating, in various Ōoku series on television. In the series Gokenin Zankurō she portrayed the mother of the title character (played by Ken Watanabe), and narrated a Lone Wolf and Cub television series.
Kishida's film credits include the 1962 Yasujiro Ozu An Autumn Afternoon, The Broken Commandment (based on a novel by Shimazaki Toson), the 1964 Hiroshi Teshigahara film of the Kobo Abe novel Woman in the Dunes, the 1987 The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter by Kon Ichikawa based on the classic story, Heaven and Earth (1990), and Spring Snow, the 2005 Isao Yukisada adaptation of the Mishima novel.
Anime fans know Kishida as the voice of Moomin in the original 1960s television series. She provided narration for Vampire Princess Miyu and Princess Tutu as well as the 2005 Book of the Dead. In addition, she dubbed roles for Columbo and Miss Marple, and narrated Prophecies of Nostradamus. Kishida appeared in commercials for Nestle, TDK, and Asahi Shimbun.
Kyōko Kishida died on Dec. 17, 2006 in Tokyo from respiratory failure caused by a brain tumor.
