Yoko Shimada

Kumamoto Cityborn Shimada Yoko is best known in the west as Mariko from the 1980 miniseries Shogun The ladyinwaiting role created an interest in Japan and its culture overseas and introduced Japanese history to foreign audiences She won the Golden Globe For Best Performance by an Actress in a TVSeries Drama category and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her work on the serial in 1981 Shimada who spoke some English for the serial had been acting for years prior to Shogun however She began learning ballet since age three and wanted to become a ballerina until her high high school days Her family had moved to Tokyo when she was eight She obtained an agent and began acting while in junior high school The TV serial Zoku Hyouten made her famous beginning 1970 She released a nude photo book called Kir Royal in 1992 She was 39 and the photo book became a bestseller shifting half a million copies At 57 she starred in an AV pornography video called Mikkai in 2011 This was a tribute to her body even at that age Shimada has a reservation for a space burial