Yoko Shimada
Known for: Acting
Kumamoto City-born Shimada Yoko is best known in the west as Mariko from the 1980 mini-series Shogun. The lady-in-waiting role created an interest in Japan and its culture overseas and introduced Japanese history to foreign audiences. She won the Golden Globe For Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama category and was nominated for a Prime-time Emmy Award for her work on the serial in 1981. Shimada, who spoke some English for the serial, had been acting for years prior to Shogun however. She began learning ballet since age three and wanted to become a ballerina until her high high school days. Her family had moved to Tokyo when she was eight. She obtained an agent and began acting while in junior high school. The TV serial Zoku Hyouten made her famous beginning 1970. She released a nude photo book, called Kir Royal, in 1992. She was 39 and the photo book became a bestseller shifting half a million copies. At 57 she starred in an 'AV' pornography video called Mikkai in 2011. This was a tribute to her body even at that age. Shimada has a reservation for a space burial.
Filmography
Series
Shōgun
Lady Toda Buntaro - Mariko
1980
Film
Crying Freeman
Lady Hanada
1995
Film
The Hunted
Mieko
1995
Film
Labyrinth Romanesque
Tae Akimoto
1988
Series
Ōgon no Hibi
Hosokawa Gracia
1978
Series
Tuesday Suspense Theater
1981
Film
The Castle of Sand
Reiko Takagi
1974
Film
The Inugami Family
Tamayo Nonomiya
1976
Film
Ring! Ring! Ring! The Champion Belt of Tears
1993
Series
Fushoku no kōzō
Majima Kumiko
1977
Series
Sunflower on the Hill
Yabe Fumi
1993
Film
I Am a Cat
Yukie
1975
Film
Dead Angle
1979
Film
Truckster Goes to Hokkaido
1976
Film
Shogun
Lady Toda Buntaro - Mariko
1980
Film
The Sino-Dutch War 1661
Matsu Tagawa
2001
Film
Undiscovered Tomb
Ivy
2003
Film
Go Go Kamen Rider
Hiromi Nohara
1971
Film
My Champion
Miki
1981
Film
Kazu no Fūkei
1991
Film
Brothers Serving Time
1969
Film
Dear Heart
2009
Film
Minamoto Yoshitsune
Kaneuri Kichiji
1990
Film
The Deep Red
Dr. Tanaka
2005
Film
Kanon
Sumiko
2016
Film
Nagare no Fu Part I: Disturbance, Part II: Dawn
1974
Film
I Want to Meet Yoko Shimada
2010
Film
Lupin the Thief: Enigma of the 813
Mrs. Kesselbach
1979
Film
Dog of Fortune
Reiko Kitamori
1979
Film
Black Corridor
2004
Film
Kyukei no Koya
1975
Series
氷点
1989
津軽・青森ロマンチック殺人街道
Kyoko
1989
Film
Sister Yakuza, Bodhisattva Ryuko
2000
Film
Dohten
1991
Film
Slow Down
1991
The Making of Shōgun
2003
Film
The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma
1987
Film
Gotoshi Co. Ltd. Special Police Department Crime Prevention Division No. 5104 Case
1995
Film
The Faithless Love
Self
2011
Film
First Love
1972
Film
God in Jail
2016
Film
River Without a Bridge
1969
Film
Sea of Whitetail
1990
Film
Mikkai
Self
2011
Film
Bridge
Film
Visitor After Dark
Etsuko / Noriko
1975