Biography
Kanae Kobayashi was a Japanese actress. Born on 7 March 1907 in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, she moved to Kyoto in 1916 to live with her uncle, the film director Kobayashi Yaroku, and made her screen debut as a child actor. After working at a department store, she joined Nikkatsu Daishogun Studio in 1924 and spent over fifty years as a supporting actress, often in period dramas.
She appeared in numerous films from the 1950s to the 1970s, including roles as Otatsu in Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954), Kane the innkeeper in The Tale of Zatoichi (1962), and Old Geisha Kikuryû in In the Realm of the Senses (1976). Other credits include several entries in the Zatoichi series and Empire of Passion (1978). Kobayashi died on 8 September 2001.
