Akiko Koyama (小山 明子, Koyama Akiko, born 25 January 1935) is a Japanese stage and film actress who appeared in over 80 films,[1] many directed by her husband Nagisa Ōshima.[2][3][4]
Biography
Koyama was born Akiko Usui in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture as the youngest of six children.[2] She graduated from Kanagawa Prefectural Tsurumi High School in 1953 and entered a dressmaking school to study fashion design.[2] After appearing on the cover of Katei Yomiuri magazine, she received an offer by the Shochiku film studios, where she gave her screen debut in 1955.[2] In 1960, she married film director Nagisa Ōshima and left Shochiku with him, becoming a co-founder of the independent film company Sozosha which produced Ōshima's subsequent films and in which she regularly starred.[2] In the 1980s, she switched from film to television work, while still appearing on stage.[2] Koyama temporarily retired from acting after Ōshima's collapse from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1996 to nurse her husband.[2] She and Ōshima, who died in 2013, had two sons.[3] In recent years, she has been active as a lecturer and essayist on the subject of nursing care.[2]
