Hara Hisako

Other Name: 原ひさ子

Age: 115

Birthday: August 6, 1909

Nationality: Japanese

Gender: Female

Hara Hisako was a Japanese actress. Her birth name was Ishijima Hisa (石島久). She used the stage names Hara Hisako (原緋紗子) and Hara Hisako (原緋沙子). She was born in Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan, as the youngest of four siblings. Her father was a banker, but he passed away when she was six years old. Upon graduating from Fujitaka Girls' High School, she moved to Tokyo and was adopted by her uncle and aunt. Her uncle was an engineer for a company but also managed a boarding house and a café near the University of Tokyo. During this time, Hara assisted with the family business and engaged in activities such as learning Nagauta singing and ikebana, as part of her training for marriage. In 1933, she responded to a recruitment advertisement for Zenshinza theater company that she saw in a newspaper. At that time, she had no intention of becoming an actress and thought it would be fine to work behind the scenes. A few days later, she received a notice of acceptance. While her uncle and sister, who loved theater, allowed her to pursue acting, her brother, who worked as a banker in Shizuoka, strongly opposed it, leading to a three-year estrangement. Her debut performance was in "Ushi wo Ku" at the Shinbashi Enbujo theater. Her film debut was in 1935's "Machi no Irezumi Mono," where she provided the voice dubbing for the character played by Kunitaro Kawarasaki. In 1938, she married fellow actor Ishijima Botaro (石島房太郎), who was also a member of the Zenshinza theater company. In 1944, both she and her husband became exclusive actors for Toho Studios. After the war, when there was a shortage of acting jobs, they rented a vacant house owned by relatives and operated a café. However, their acting career resumed when they were invited to join the traveling performances of Toho Drama Company. Although she appeared in numerous films, she, along with others, had her contract terminated by Toho Studios during the Toho labor dispute. Subsequently, she joined forces with others who had their contracts terminated to form the Toho Actors' Collective and primarily appeared in independent films. She became a freelancer in 1950. From 1955 onwards, she mainly worked in films produced by Nikkatsu Corporation. In 1960, she participated in the founding of the Tokyo Actors' Cooperative, to which she belonged until her later years. At the age of 70, she began composing haiku poems. In 2000, at the age of 90, she published her first book titled "Grandmother's Haiku: Diary of Everyday Life" (ばばさまの俳句は日記つれづれに). Her birthday coincides with the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. After the war, she made a vow to never celebrate her birthday as a tribute to those who perished in the atomic bombing and to empathize with the ongoing suffering of survivors of atomic bomb-related illnesses. On December 4, 2005, she lost consciousness after finishing dinner with her family. She passed away from heart failure while being transported to a hospital in Tokyo. She was 96 years old at the time of her death. (Source: Japanese = Wikipedia || Translation = MyDramaList).