Hisaya Morishige

Hisaya Morishige (1913-2009) had one of the widest resumes in Japanese entertainment. Born in Hirakata outside Osaka, schooled at Kitano and Waseda, he started as a stage actor and then worked as an NHK announcer in Manchukuo. After the war he became everything at once: film comedian, dramatic actor, stage lead, singer, songwriter. His song Shiretoko Ryojo is still sung all over Japan. He received the Order of Culture in 1991 and the People's Honour Award in 2009, the year he died. He is my proof that a career too broad to file under one label can be the one people remember longest.

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Name (English)

Hisaya Morishige

Name (Japanese)

森繁久彌

Reading

もりしげ ひさや

Born

May 4, 1913 – November 10, 2009

Origin

Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Height

168 cm

Occupation

singer / entrepreneur / announcer / actor / singer-songwriter

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Ox

Blood type

B

Active years

1936 - 2009

High school

Osaka Prefectural Kitano High School

University

Waseda University

Awards & achievements

• 1991 Order of Culture
• 1975 Medal with Purple Ribbon
• 1984 Person of Cultural Merit
• 2009 People's Honour Award
• 1956 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Actor
• Golden Arrow Award
• Kikuta Kazuo engeki shō

Spouse

森繁満壽子

Works summary

Appearances

312 (1950–2010)

By year

1950: 4, 1951: 2, 1952: 6, 1953: 8, 1954: 3, 1955: 10, 1956: 10, 1957: 4, 1958: 12, 1959: 6, 1960: 11, 1961: 9, 1962: 9, 1963: 10, 1964: 11, 1965: 7, 1966: 8, 1967: 7, 1968: 4, 1969: 6, 1970: 4, 1971: 4, 1972: 3, 1973: 3, 1974: 3, 1975: 4, 1976: 7, 1977: 7, 1978: 5, 1979: 3, 1980: 4, 1981: 4, 1982: 4, 1983: 7, 1984: 4, 1985: 4, 1986: 4, 1987: 5, 1988: 3, 1989: 3, 1990: 3, 1992: 2, 1993: 5, 1994: 3, 1995: 2, 1996: 4, 1997: 8, 1998: 2, 1999: 3, 2000: 1, 2001: 8, 2003: 2, 2004: 2, 2007: 1, 2008: 1, 2009: 1, 2010: 2

Debut work

腰抜け二刀流

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisaya%20Morishige
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A3%AE%E7%B9%81%E4%B9%85%E5%BD%8C
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1078152

Tags

• Osaka Prefecture
• singer
• entrepreneur
• announcer

Last updated

September 18, 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.