Tsutomu Yamazaki

Tsutomu Yamazaki has unsettled me ever since I first watched High and Low. He was twenty-six playing that kidnapper, and the stillness of it is not something a young actor should be able to reach. Then he turns up as Nembutsu no Tetsu in Hissatsu Shiokinin, cracking bones and laughing, and later carries whole Juzo Itami films on his back in The Funeral and A Taxing Woman. In Go he plays a father who takes a punch from his own son. The Japan Academy best actor prizes, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, the Order of the Rising Sun: none of it reads as generosity, only accuracy. Born in Matsudo and trained through the Haiyuza school and Bungakuza, he is approaching ninety, having stepped away to care for family and come through serious illness, and he still returns to set. That is what the word actor is for.

Name (English)

Tsutomu Yamazaki

Name (Japanese)

山﨑努

Born

December 2, 1936 (age 89)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Rat

Origin

Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

Height

174 cm

Occupation

actor

High school

Tokyo Metropolitan Ueno High School

Awards & achievements

• 1985 Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
• 1988 Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
• 2000 Medal with Purple Ribbon
• 1961 Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year
• 1985 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Actor
• 2002 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Supporting Actor
• 2007 The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://yamazaki-tsutomu.com
• Xhttps://x.com/yamazaki_do
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%EF%A8%91%E5%8A%AA

Tags

• Chiba Prefecture
• actor

Last updated

2026-07-26

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.