Daily Archives: May 12, 2009

The actress known as “Nihon no Okaasan” (Japan’s Mother) is to receive a National Honor Award, the government announced yesterday. Mori Mitsuko will be both the oldest ever recipient and the first working actor to be so recognized. Despite her age, Mori is still active and celebrated her 89th birthday last Saturday by starring in the stage play “Hourouki” for the 2,000th time, a role she has played for 48 years. Chief Cabinet Secretary Kawamura Takeo attended the landmark show at the Imperial Theater in Tokyo and made the announcement on Monday, while Mori was on stage for the 2,001st time. The decision to honor Mori was made by Prime Minister Aso Taro. Though the decision received widespread media coverage, Mori declined to comment as the details have yet to be formalized. The award was established in 1977 to recognize those who have earned national recognition and are deemed to have brought hope and inspiration to the country. The inaugural award was given to baseball legend and home run king Oh Sadaharu. To date there have been 16 recipients, of whom three were women: singer Misora Hibai in 1989, “Sazae-san” mangaka Hasegawa Machiko in 1992, and Olympic marathon gold medalist Takahashi Naoko in 2000. Since then, the only other recipient was songwriter Endo Minoru in January of this year. Mori is only the second person to receive both this award and the Order of Cultural Merit, after movie director Kurosawa Akira.

A Kyoto native, Mori made her acting debut at the age of 15, though she was somewhat disappointed to find herself appearing mostly in comedies. Her reputation was stained when she broke off her engagement to a movie producer and she moved to the theater. She contracted tuberculosis in 1949, which left her unable to work for three years and led to rumors of her death. In Osaka in the 1950s she worked on radio and TV, where she once again found herself in comedy. She moved to Tokyo in 1959 and married a radio producer. She switched from supporting roles to leading lady after she landed the starring role in Hourouki in 1961 (a highlight of the show was a stage tumble, which Mori did every night until 2008, when age finally caught up with her. She now does a triple banzai salute instead). From the mid60s to the 80s she regularly played motherly roles in popular TV dramas, such as “Jikan Desuyo” (1970-73) and “Hana Fubiki wa Hashigo Ikka” (1975-76). She is a big fan of Johnny’s Jimusho boy bands and is close to several of the top stars.

Popular songwriter Miki Takashi died yesterday of throat cancer at a hospital in Okayama Prefecture. He was 64. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer since 2006. Real name Watanabe Tadashi, he left junior high school wanting to be a singer. But instead he debuted as songwriter in 1967 and went on to write over 2,000 songs. Together with Aku Yuu, who passed away in 2007, he was regarded as one of the best songwriters of the late 20th century. His heyday for churning out hits was in the 1970s, when he wrote for stars as varied as Saijo Hideki, Agnes Chan and Iwasaki Hiromi. One of his biggest hits was Ishikawa Sayuri’s “Tsugarukaikyou – Fuyukeshiki” in 1977. Together with writer Araki Toyohisa, he penned a series of hits for the hugely successful Taiwanese star Teresa Teng, including the award-winning “Toki no Nagare ni Mi wo Makase” (photo right). Among his other well-known creations are the theme to the children’s anime “Anpanman.” In recent years he wrote music mostly for the theater. He was board chairman of the Japan Composer’s Association from 2004 and was recognized by the government for his contribution to the arts in 2005.