# Yatsuko Tan'ami

Yatsuko Kaneko Tanami (Japanese: 丹阿弥 谷津子, born 25 June 1924) is a Japanese actress, known for her performance during the Golden Age of Japanese film.

## Early years

Her real name is Yatsuko Kaneko. Her father, Tanami Iwakichi (1901-1992), was a painter from Tokyo who studied under Taikan Yokoyama. Her mother, Tomie, was a paulownia doll artist from Hikami-cho, Hyogo Prefecture (currently Tamba City). Her younger sister Tanami Niwako (1927-) became a copperplate engraver after entering Bunka Gakuin.
Her family lived in Atelier Village in Nagasaki, Toshima Ward.

## Education

In 1937, she graduated from Tokyo Higher Normal School Attached Elementary School and from Tokyo Prefectural 10th High School for Girls. In 1942, she graduated from Bunka Gakuin Faculty of Literature. In 1942 she became a research student at the Bungakuza. In the same year she made her debut in "Matsugoro Tomishima". In 1945, she gained attention for her role as Anya in the new theater joint performance "The Cherry Orchard", and since then she has been known as an actress with both her beauty and acting skills, such as Roxanne in "Cyrano" and Fanny in "Marius".

## Career

On 24 March 1954, she left for France to attend the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1964, she formed "Gekidan NLT" with Yukio Mishima, who had left Bungakuza due to the incident. She left the company in 1966 and formed a new group, New Theater Club Marui, with Kaneko. In 1967, she won the Encouragement Prize at the Arts Festival for "Love and Death of an Actress". In 2000, she won the 10th Japan Film Critics Award for Lifetime Achievement. She has made many appearances in TV dramas as the grandmother of her main character. She has appeared in commercials for Paramount Bed, Sawai Pharmaceutical, and others.

## Personal life

She was married to actor Nobuo Kaneko until his death in 1995.
She turned 100 in June 2024.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Director |
| 1950 | Nanairo no Hana | Madam Tsubaki | Masahisa Sunohara |
| 1952 | At War's End | Tsuruko Sasaki | Hideo Sekigawa |
| 1952 | Ikiru | Bar Hostess | Akira Kurosawa |
| 1952 | Tokyo no Ekubo | Nobuko Kawakami | Shūe Matsubayashi |
| 1952 | Koi no Ōen-danchō | Sanae Kimura | Umetsugu Inoue |
| 1953 | An Inlet of Muddy Water | Harada Seki | Tadashi Imai |
| 1953 | Zoku Jūdai no Seiten | Miss Matsushita | Kozo Saeki |
| 1953 | Wife | Fusako Sagara | Mikio Naruse |
| 1953 | Gendai Shojo | Moriko Yoshimura | Kozo Saeki |
| 1954 | Haha no Hatsukoi | Tamiko | Seiji Hisamatsu |
| 1954 | Sound of the Mountain | Ikeda | Mikio Naruse |
| 1955 | Ejima and Ikushima | Ienobu | Hideo Ōba |
| 1956 | Through A Child's Eye | Junko | Yoshirō Kawazu |
| 1956 | Red and Green | Toyoko Masuyama | Noboru Nakamura |
| 1957 | Untamed Woman | | Mikio Naruse |
| 1958 | Symphoney of Love | Shizue Kaneda | Teinosuke Kinugasa |
| 1958 | A Woman of Osaka | Otae | Teinosuke Kinugasa |
| 1959 | The Most Valuable Madam | Yomoko Mihara | Yasuzo Masumura |
| 1959 | Onna Gokoro | Tsukiko | Seiji Maruyama |
| 1960 | When a Woman Loves | Yukiko | Heinosuke Gosho |
| 1960 | Spring Dreams | Tamiko Okudaira | Keisuke Kinoshita |
| 1961 | Adorable Schemers | Mami | Keigo Kimura |
| 1961 | Lost in the Sun | Yaeko Yashiro | Toshio Masuda |
| 1961 | Poignant Story | Hanae | Mikio Naruse |
| 1962 | Akiko | | Koji Shima |
| 1962 | Diary of a Mad Old Man | Mutsuko | Keigo Kimura |
| 1962 | Sabakareru Echizen-no-kami | Onui | Tokuzō Tanaka |
| 1962 | Stolen Pleasure | Yukiko | Yasuzo Masumura |
| 1962 | A Woman's Place | Ranko Ishikawa | Mikio Naruse |
| 1963 | Zoku Ōsho | | Junya Sato |
| 1963 | A House of Shame | Hisako | Tomotaka Tasaka |
| 1963 | Utsukushii Koyomi | Yajima Chie | Kenjirō Morinaga |
| 1963 | Kekkonshiki Kekkonshiki | Mitsuko | Noboru Nakamura |
| 1964 | The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers | Kinu | Hiromichi Horikawa |
| 1964 | A Public Benefactor | Kaneko Yokota | Satsuo Yamamoto |
| 1964 | Geisha Gakkō | | Keigo Kimura |
| 1967 | The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka | Saheiji's Wife | Yasuzo Masumura |
| 1967 | Nani wa naku tomo zen'in shûgô!! | | Yūsuke Watanabe |
| 1968 | Amadera Maruhi Monogatari | Kiyo | Sadao Nakajima |
| 1968 | Lone Wolf Isazo | | Kazuo Ikehiro |
| 1968 | Eternal Love | Mitsuyo Shinjo | Katsumi Nishikawa |
| 1979 | Demon Pond | Nurse | Masahiro Shinoda |
| 1979 | The Shogun Assassins | Mochizuki Chiyome | Sadao Nakajima |
| 1986 | Lost in the Wilderness | Hatsu Uemura | Junya Sato |
| 1987 | Guys Who Never Learn | Haruyo Abe | Azuma Morisaki |
| 1988 | Free and Easy | Hisae Suzuki | Tomio Kuriyama |
| 1989 | Free and Easy II | Hisae Suzuki | Tomio Kuriyama |
| 1990 | Tsuribaka nisshi 3 | Hisae Suzuki | Tomio Kuriyama |
| 1991 | Tsuribaka Nisshi 4 | Hisae Suzuki | Tomio Kuriyama |
| 1993 | Tsuribaka Nisshi 6 | Hisae Suzuki | Tomio Kuriyama |
| 2006 | Three Year Delivery | Aki | Miako Tadano |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Note |
| 1961 | Hakai | | |
| 1961 | Green Gekijō | | Episode 18: Ore wa Shiranai |
| 1961 | Kiken na Shamen | | |
| 1962 | Takasebune | | |
| 1965 | The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family | | |
| 1966 | Kawa no Hotori de | | |
| 1967 | Tokyo Story | | |
| 1974 | Submersion of Japan | Kayo Onodera the mother of Toshio | |
| 1976 | Kaze to kumo to niji to | | |
| 1978 | Queen Mother of the West | Queen Mother of the West | 1 episode |
| 1980 | Ikenaka Genta 80 kilo | Harue | |
| 1980 | Hadaka no Taisho Horoki | | |
| 1981 | Haha taru koto wa jigoku no gotoku | Sawako | TV movie |
| 1984 | Aoi Hitomi no Seiraifu | | |
| 1981 | Kazunomiya sama otome | Oshizu | TV movie |
| 1988 | Kaseifu wa mita! 6 | | TV movie |
| 1989 | New Tokyo Story | Tomi Hirayama | TV movie |
| 1993 | Eenyobo | Toki Asakura | 86 episodes |
| 2004 | Sakura Sakumade | Hana Wakabayashi | |
| 2007 | Asakusa Fukumaru Ryokan | | 1 episode |
| 2008 | Saigo no Senpan | | TV movie |