Fujiko Yamamoto

Fujiko Yamamoto's career begins with a detail that could easily flatten her into a single word: she won the first Miss Nippon Grand Prix in 1950, and Japanese film promptly claimed her. But look at what followed. Between 1953 and 1963 she appeared in over a hundred films, working with Yasujiro Ozu, Kon Ichikawa, Shiro Toyoda and Kozaburo Yoshimura. That is not a decorative career; that is a working actress carrying an enormous share of a studio system at its most demanding. She won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress in 1959, and in 2001 received the Medal with Purple Ribbon for her contribution to the arts. Her film career ended in 1963, when she insisted on going freelance and Daiei's president Masaichi Nagata had her shut out of films under the studios' five-company agreement; she turned to television and then built a long life on stage. I keep returning to the arithmetic of those ten years, roughly ten films a year with directors who did not indulge amateurs. Beauty may have opened the door, but nobody sustains that pace on appearance alone. Born in Osaka in 1931, she remains one of the era's genuine leading figures.

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Name (English)

Fujiko Yamamoto

Name (Japanese)

山本富士子

Reading

やまもと ふじこ

Born

December 11, 1931 (age 94)

Origin

Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Height

159 cm

Occupation

actor / beauty pageant contestant / stage actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Goat

Blood type

AB

Active years

1953 -

Awards & achievements

• 2001 Medal with Purple Ribbon
• 1959 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Actress
• Golden Arrow Award

Works summary

Appearances

155 (1953–2016)

By year (titles with a known year)

1953: 10, 1954: 9, 1955: 8, 1956: 11, 1957: 10, 1958: 15, 1959: 10, 1960: 9, 1961: 9, 1962: 7, 1963: 3, 1964: 1, 1967: 1, 1968: 1, 1969: 3, 1970: 4, 1971: 1, 1972: 2, 1973: 2, 1974: 2, 1975: 2, 1976: 1, 1977: 2, 1978: 1, 1979: 2, 1980: 2, 1981: 1, 1982: 2, 1983: 1, 1985: 1, 1987: 1, 1988: 1, 1989: 1, 1993: 1, 2001: 1, 2006: 1, 2009: 1, 2011: 1, 2016: 1, year unknown: 13

Debut work

近世名勝負物語 花の講道館

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiko%20Yamamoto
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E6%9C%AC%E5%AF%8C%E5%A3%AB%E5%AD%90
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1994683

Tags

• Osaka Prefecture
• actor
• beauty pageant contestant
• stage actor

Last updated

September 29, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. 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.