Atsuko Asano

Asano Atsuko, not to be confused with the writer of the same name, was born in Adachi in Northern Tokyo. Her parents ran a soba-noodle restaurant. She auditioned for a remake called "Eden No Umi" at age 15 and obtained a minor role. She had a credited role for the movie "Fumiko To Hatsu" the next year, in which she appeared nude. She delighted male audiences by also being nude in "Play It, Boogie-Woogie." She quickly began acting in feature films and by 1983 had won a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Japan Academy Prize for "Yokiroh." "The 101st Proposal" was a 1991 romantic serial, which was popular and might have heralded her peak fame. This side of the century, and since 2003, she began book reading and narrating Japanese folklore ('Kojiki' - oldest surviving chronicle in Japan) at various shrines and became an honourary professor at Tokyo's Kokugakuin University. She married writer Uozumi Tsutomu in 1983 and gave birth to a son Ouzumi Yu in 1984; he is now an NHK announcer. Like all Japanese celebrities, she has endorsed a dozen corporate products. She is represented by Ikushima Kikaku Shitsu.