Chieko Baishō

Okay, for me Chieko Baishō is basically the warmest presence in all of Japanese cinema, and most of that comes from playing Sakura in the endless Tora-san films, the long-suffering sister who keeps loving her hopeless wandering brother no matter how many times he blows up her life. She never overplays it; there's this quiet steel under all the kindness that makes you trust her instantly. And then she goes and voices Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle, aging gracefully across a single role, and somehow her gentle, lived-in voice carries the whole thing. A Best Actress win, a Purple Ribbon medal, decades at the top without ever making a scene about it. That's the rare kind of star you don't admire so much as feel genuinely fond of.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Chieko Baishō is a Japanese actress, voice actress, and singer born on June 29, 1941, in Tokyo. She is widely recognized for her long-running role as Sakura in the beloved Otoko wa Tsurai yo film series and for voicing the young Sophie in the Japanese dub of Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle. Her distinguished career has been recognized with the Japan Academy Prize for Best Actress (1981), the Medal with Purple Ribbon (2005), and several other honors spanning decades.

Name (English)

Chieko Baishō

Name (Japanese)

倍賞千恵子

Reading

ばいしょう ちえこ

Born

June 29, 1941 (age 85)

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Height

159 cm

Occupation

Actress / Voice Actress / Singer / Recording Artist

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Snake

Active years

1954 -

Awards & achievements

• 1962 — Elan d'Or Award, New Talent Prize
• 1976 — Blue Ribbon Award, Best Supporting Actress
• 1981 — Japan Academy Prize, Best Actress
• 1987 — Tanaka Kinuyo Award
• 2005 — Medal with Purple Ribbon
• Year Unknown — Kikuta Kazuo Theater Award
• 1971 — Mainichi Film Award, Best Actress

Works summary

Appearances

453 (1961–2026)

By year (titles with a known year)

1961: 2, 1962: 9, 1963: 27, 1964: 24, 1965: 15, 1966: 19, 1967: 19, 1968: 11, 1969: 13, 1970: 11, 1971: 10, 1972: 20, 1973: 12, 1974: 11, 1975: 13, 1976: 7, 1977: 7, 1978: 10, 1979: 7, 1980: 10, 1981: 14, 1982: 4, 1983: 6, 1984: 4, 1985: 2, 1986: 6, 1987: 3, 1988: 2, 1989: 4, 1990: 3, 1991: 3, 1992: 5, 1993: 3, 1994: 2, 1995: 3, 1997: 2, 1998: 2, 1999: 7, 2000: 3, 2001: 2, 2002: 1, 2003: 4, 2004: 3, 2005: 6, 2006: 5, 2007: 5, 2008: 5, 2009: 9, 2010: 4, 2011: 5, 2012: 6, 2013: 6, 2014: 7, 2015: 6, 2016: 2, 2017: 4, 2018: 6, 2019: 6, 2020: 4, 2021: 4, 2022: 3, 2024: 1, 2025: 3, 2026: 1, year unknown: 10

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttps://baisho-chieko.com/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%8D%E8%B3%9E%E5%8D%83%E6%81%B5%E5%AD%90
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1138444

Tags

• From Tokyo
• Actress
• Voice Actress
• Singer

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.