Shinobu Otake

Not to be confused with Shinobu Ohtaka.

Shinobu Otake
大竹 汀信
Born (1957-07-17) July 17, 1957 (age 67)
Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan
OccupationActress
Years active1973–present
AgentAvex Management, Inc.
Spouses
  • Seiji Hattori
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1982; died 1987)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1988; div. 1992)​
Children2, including Imalu [ja]

Shinobu Otake (大竹 しのぶ, Ōtake Shinobu, born 17 July 1957) is a Japanese actress. She has won three Japanese Academy Awards: the 2000 Best Actress award for Railroad Man, and the 1979 awards for both Best Actress for The Incident, and Best Supporting Actress for Seishoku no ishibumi. She also won the award for best actress at the 12th Hochi Film Award for Eien no 1/2.[1] At the 25th Moscow International Film Festival she won the award for Best Actress for her role in Owl.[2] She has received a total of 12 nominations.

She was the favoured lead actress of director Kaneto Shindo after his previous lead actress, Nobuko Otowa, died in 1994, and featured in four of his films from Will to Live in 1999 to Postcard in 2011.[3]

Otake has also acted on the stage. She performed during the last segment of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Closing Ceremony along Tokyo’s Suginami Children Chorus, singing the song "Hoshimeguri no Uta" (Star Tour Song) composed by Kenji Miyazawa, as the Olympic flame was extinguished.[4] In 2021, Otake took the lead role of Dr. Ruth Wolff in a Japanese stage adaptation of The Doctor.[5]

  1. ^ 報知映画賞ヒストリー (in Japanese). Cinema Hochi. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  2. ^ "25th Moscow International Film Festival (2003)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  3. ^ Shindo, Kaneto (2012). Nagase, Hiroko (ed.). 100 sai no ryugi [The Centenarian's Way] (in Japanese). PHP. ISBN 978-4-569-80434-7.
  4. ^ Busetto, Arielle (8 August 2021). "Japan Brings its Best Hospitality to the Tokyo Olympics Closing Ceremony | JAPAN Forward". japan-forward.com. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  5. ^ Tanaka, Nobuko (11 November 2021). "'The Doctor' diagnoses society's afflictions". The Japan Times. Retrieved 13 November 2021.