Rieko Sumi

Rieko Sumi is the kind of figure who makes you stop and think about what it actually took to be a working actor in Japan across the mid-twentieth century. Born in 1928, she came up through Osaka Ongaku Daigaku — a music school background, which tells me she wasn't just learning lines but really thinking about voice, breath, and performance from the inside out. To be active as an actor through the wartime years and into the postwar rebuilding of Japanese culture took a particular kind of stubbornness and belief in what the stage or screen could do for people. The specifics of her filmography aren't widely documented in English, but that almost adds to the mystique — she wasn't chasing celebrity, she was doing the work. She passed away in 2005 at 77, and I find myself genuinely respectful of a career built in an era when there was no social media hype cycle to carry you, just craft.

Rieko Sumi (1928–2005) was a Japanese actress who studied at Osaka College of Music before building her career in the performing arts. She worked through the Showa era and remained active across Japanese film and stage. She passed away on October 12, 2005.

Name (English)

Rieko Sumi

Name (Japanese)

角梨枝子

Reading

すみ りえこ

Born

March 7, 1928 – October 12, 2005

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Dragon

Origin

Japan

Occupation

Actor

University

Osaka College of Music

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A7%92%E6%A2%A8%E6%9E%9D%E5%AD%90

Tags

• Actor

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.