Shimada Yoko, Golden Globe-Winning Japanese Actor in ‘Shogun,’ Dies at 69
Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentShimada Yoko, the Japanese actor who earned a Golden Globe for her role as Mariko in 1980s miniseries ‘Shogun,’ has died, age 69.Japanese media reported that she died of multiple organ failure due to colorectal cancer, in a Tokyo hospital on Monday (July 25, 2022).Born in 1953 in Kumamoto, a city on the southern island of Kyushu, Shimada made her TV debut in the 1970 drama “Osanazuma.” She became popular in the 1970s playing pure and virtuous types on TV and in films, including the 1974 hit “The Castle of Sand.”Despite limited English-language skills, she had one of the few English-speaking roles in “Shogun” when she was cast in the role of Mariko (aka Lady Toda Buntaro), the love interest of Richard Chamberlain’s shipwrecked British navigator turned samurai. Nevertheless, her portrayal as an aristocratic woman who dies saving her foreign lover’s life earned Shimada her first and only Golden Globe.