is a Japanese actress, television personality, World Wide Fund for Nature advisor, and Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. It has also been adapted into a television series twice.

She is also known for her charitable works, and is considered one of the first Japanese celebrities to achieve international recognition.

Early life

Kuroyanagi was born in Tokyo City, Tokyo Prefecture (now Tokyo). Her father was a violinist and a concertmaster. Her nickname as a child was Totto-chan, according to her 1981 autobiographical memoir. After graduation, however, she was drawn to acting and the television entertainment industry by her joining Tokyo Hoso Gekidan. Subsequently, she became the first Japanese actress who was contracted to Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). Kuroyanagi first became well known in 1975 when she established her afternoon television program , which was the first talk show on Japanese television. Tetsuko's Room was very successful, and Kuroyanagi started to be referred to as a "phenomenon" in Japan, in contradiction to the image of "servile" and "wifely" women on Japanese television". It is acknowledged that her warmness as an interviewer and skilled art of talking is a factor that made the TV program live long.

1981 marked a turning point in her career, as Kuroyanagi published her children book Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window, in which Kuroyanagi wrote about the values of the unconventional education that she received at Tomoe Gakuen elementary school during World War II, and her teacher Sosaku Kobayashi. The book is considered her childhood memoir, and upon release, it became the bestselling book in Japanese history. The book was first translated to English in 1984 by Dorothy Britton, and it was published in more than 30 countries. Kuroyanagi has raised more than $20 million for the UNICEF programmes that she has been involved in, through television fund-raising campaigns. She also used the royalties from her bestselling book, Totto-chan, to contribute to UNICEF. acting with them in sign language.

Honours

For her involvement in media and television entertainment, Kuroyanagi won the Japanese Cultural Broadcasting Award, which is the highest television honour in Japan. Since then, she has been voted 14 times as Japan's favourite television personality, for the show Tetsuko's Room.

Filmography

This is a partial list of films.

  • Thunderbirds (voice actor) (1965–1966) - Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (Japanese dub)
  • Jack and the Witch (voice actor) (1967)
  • Breaking of Branches Is Forbidden (voice actor) (1968, dir. Kihachirō Kawamoto)
  • Summer Soldiers (1972)
  • Anne no Nikki (The Diary of Anne Frank) as Mrs. Petronella Van Daan (voice actor) (1995)
  • The Book of the Dead (voice actor) (2005)

References

  • Official Homepage as Totto channel
  • Homepage for Tetsuko's Room