Michiyo Aratama

I'll be honest, Michiyo Aratama is someone I only ever met through old film prints, but every time she shows up on screen I get that quiet little jolt of "oh, THIS is what real screen presence looks like." She doesn't beg for your attention. She just stands there, poised, and somehow the whole frame tightens around her. Born in Nara in 1930, a kid through the war years, and you can feel that flinty grace under the elegance, the kind of dignity that can't be faked. She wasn't flashy, she was a craftswoman, sharpened on the stage and decorated with a Blue Ribbon for her supporting work. She passed in 2001, but honestly she's still right there in the celluloid, calm and unbothered, outlasting everybody who tried to be louder.

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.

Michiyo Aratama (January 15, 1930 – March 17, 2001) was a Japanese actress born in Nara City, Nara Prefecture. Known for her composed screen presence and formal elegance, she was active in Japanese film and theater during the Showa era. She received the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1960 and also earned the Kikuta Kazuo Theater Award for her stage work.

Name (English)

Michiyo Aratama

Name (Japanese)

新珠三千代

Reading

あらたま みちよ

Born

January 15, 1930 – March 17, 2001

Origin

Nara City, Nara Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Actress / Film Actress

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Horse

Active years

1946 - 2001

Awards & achievements

• 1960 — Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress
• Year Unknown — Kikuta Kazuo Theater Award

Works summary

Appearances

125 (1950–2006)

By year (titles with a known year)

1950: 1, 1951: 3, 1952: 5, 1953: 3, 1954: 2, 1955: 3, 1956: 6, 1957: 2, 1958: 4, 1959: 6, 1960: 5, 1961: 6, 1962: 5, 1963: 6, 1964: 3, 1965: 5, 1966: 6, 1967: 4, 1968: 3, 1969: 3, 1970: 2, 1971: 1, 1972: 2, 1973: 3, 1974: 2, 1975: 1, 1976: 2, 1978: 1, 1980: 4, 1981: 2, 1982: 2, 1983: 4, 1984: 1, 1989: 2, 1990: 2, 1991: 3, 1995: 1, 2006: 1, year unknown: 8

Debut work

春風の接吻

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E7%8F%A0%E4%B8%89%E5%8D%83%E4%BB%A3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3311534

Tags

• from Nara Prefecture
• Actress
• Film Actress

Last updated

September 24, 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.