Momoe Yamaguchi

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Momoe Yamaguchi : biography

17 January 1959 –

Her two sons, Yūtarō and Takahiro Miura, both also entered careers in entertainment. Yūtarō entered the music business under the pseudonym "Yū" in a now-defunct group called "Peaky Salt". Initially it was not known that he was Momoe and Tomokazu’s son. Takahiro is an actor who has appeared in several films and television programs.

Yamaguchi’s hobby is quilt making, and she exhibits her quilts under her married name, "Momoe Miura". In 2011, she was selected in a poll as "The ideal mother".

New musical products continue to go on sale, such as a boxed DVD set of her appearances on television program Yoru No Hitto Sutajio ("Evening Hit Studio") in 2010. In a November 2011 television interview, Ryudo Uzaki said that she still receives a healthy income from record royalties. Her television dramas continue to be available on DVD, and from 2010 have been repeated daily on the TBS Channel cable television station.

In 2011, Tomokazu Miura wrote a book entitled "Aishō" (compatibility) explaining the secret of their happy marriage. In 2012, the couple came first for the seventh consecutive year in a poll by the Meiji Yasuda life insurance company to find "the ideal celebrity couple" as considered by married people in their 20s to 50s.

Screen appearances

Films

Apart from her first film Toshigoro and two concert films, all of Yamaguchi’s films, from Izu no odiroko on, were romantic stories costarring Tomokazu Miura. Many of them were directed by Katsumi Nishikawa and were remakes of the director’s own films. Except for White Love (set in Spain) and Furimukeba Ai (set in San Francisco), almost all of the romantic films with Miura were based on Japanese literary works.

  • Toshigoro () (directed by Ichimura)
  • Izu no Odoriko () (from the short story "The Dancing Girl of Izu" by Yasunari Kawabata) (directed by Katsumi Nishikawa)
  • Shiosai () (directed by Katsumi Nishikawa)
  • Onēchan Ote Yawaraka ni () (as herself, her only non-starring role)
  • Zesshō () (1975) (directed by Katsumi Nishikawa)
  • Eden no Umi () (directed by Katsumi Nishikawa)
  • Kaze tachinu () (directed by Mitsuo Wakasugi)
  • Shunkinshō () (directed by Katsumi Nishikawa)
  • Doro darake no Junjō () (directed by Sokichi Tomimoto)
  • Kiri no Hata (), (directed by Katsumi Nishikawa)
  • Furimukeba Ai (), (directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi), also titled Take me away!
  • Honō no Mai () (directed by Yoshisuke Kawasaki)
  • White Love () (directed by Tsugunobu Kotani)
  • Tenshi o Yuwaku () (directed by Toshiya Fujita)
  • Koto () (1980) (directed by Kon Ichikawa)

Concert films

  • Hana no Kō Ni Torio Hatsukoi Jidai ()
  • Masako, Junko, Momoe – Namida no Sotsugyōshiki Shuppatsu ()

Television

On television, most of Yamaguchi’s appearances were in a series of dramas with Ken Utsui. Each of these dramas went on for about twenty-six episodes, or half a year. Starting with Kao de waratte and going on to the so-called Akai Series, in each serial drama she and Utsui played a different father and daughter. Echoing Yamaguchi’s real-life family issues, all of the Akai series consisted of complex, melodramatic family circumstances such as hidden adoption (Akai Meiro, Akai Giwaku, Akai Kizuna), mistaken identity (Akai Unmei), murder (Akai Meiro, Akai Unmei) or illness (leukemia via radiation poisoning in Akai Giwaku, paralysis via an accidental shooting in Akai Shogeki).

Some of the serial dramas in the Akai series did not feature Yamaguchi, such as Akai Gekiryu starring Yutaka Mizutani, in which she made a guest appearance in the first episode. Each of the Akai series which she appeared in, except Akai Meiro, featured a title song sung by Yamaguchi herself.