Biography
Isuzu Yamada was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Born Mitsu Yamada in Osaka on 5 February 1917, she was the daughter of a shinpa actor and a geisha. She made her film debut in 1930 at the age of twelve in the Nikkatsu production Tsurugi wo koete.
Yamada gained early acclaim for her roles in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Osaka Elegy (1936) and Sisters of the Gion (1936). She later appeared in several films by Mikio Naruse and became internationally recognised for her performances in Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957) as Lady Asaji Washizu, The Lower Depths (1957) and Yojimbo (1961) as Orin. Other notable credits include Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Twilight (1957).
From the late 1950s she focused increasingly on theatre while continuing to work in film and television, including the long-running Hissatsu series. Yamada died in Tokyo on 9 July 2012.
