Machiko Kyō

Machiko Kyō, born Motoko Yano in Osaka in 1924, died in 2019, and the run she had in the 1950s still functions as a kind of index to Japanese cinema at its peak. Look at the directors she worked with: Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Kon Ichikawa, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Kōzaburō Yoshimura. That is not a filmography so much as a map of an entire era, and she is at the center of it. She is often introduced to English-language audiences as one of Japan's first screen sex symbols, which I find a thin way to describe her. The more revealing fact is that directors with wildly different temperaments — the epic, the cruel, the quiet, the domestic — all decided she was the actress they needed. That kind of range is not glamour; it is craft. She also worked on stage, and the recognition followed her across both: a Mainichi Film Award for Best Actress, the Kikuta Kazuo Drama Award, the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1987, and the Order of the Precious Crown, 4th Class, in 1994.

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Name (English)

Machiko Kyō

Name (Japanese)

京マチ子

Reading

きょう まちこ

Born

March 25, 1924 – May 12, 2019

Origin

Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

actor / stage actor / film actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Rat

Active years

1949 - 2019

Awards & achievements

• 1987 Medal with Purple Ribbon
• Kikuta Kazuo engeki shō
• 1994 Order of the Precious Crown, 4th Class
• Mainichi Film Award for Best Actress

Works summary

Appearances

144 (1950–2006)

By year (titles with a known year)

1950: 7, 1951: 7, 1952: 6, 1953: 4, 1954: 7, 1955: 4, 1956: 5, 1957: 7, 1958: 8, 1959: 7, 1960: 6, 1961: 6, 1962: 3, 1963: 1, 1964: 3, 1966: 3, 1968: 1, 1969: 2, 1970: 2, 1972: 1, 1973: 3, 1974: 1, 1975: 2, 1976: 2, 1977: 2, 1979: 2, 1980: 2, 1981: 4, 1982: 3, 1983: 2, 1984: 3, 1986: 1, 1987: 2, 1988: 2, 1989: 1, 1990: 2, 1992: 1, 1994: 1, 1995: 1, 1999: 1, 2000: 1, 2001: 1, 2006: 1, year unknown: 13

Debut work

羅生門

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiko%20Ky%C5%8D
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%AC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%81%E5%AD%90
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q180602

Tags

• Osaka Prefecture
• actor
• stage actor
• film 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.