Akihiro Miwa

Akihiro Miwa 美輪 明宏
Born	May 15, 1935 (1935-05-15) (age 76) Nagasaki, Japan
Occupation	Singer, actor, stage actor, composer, author, theatre director

Akihiro Miwa (美輪 明宏, Miwa Akihiro^?), (born May 15, 1935) is a Japanese singer, actor, drag queen, director, composer and author from Nagasaki in Nagasaki Prefecture. His real name is Akihiro Maruyama (丸山 明宏, Maruyama Akihiro^?). He writes most of his own music and has written over 20 books. An open homosexual, he is also a drag queen who often dyes his shoulder-length hair bright yellow.

Early life

Miwa was born to a family which ran a small cafe. After seeing the movie Boy Soprano at the age of 11, he claims to have had a dream in which he was standing on stage in a concert hall, singing. It was this which inspired his interest in music. He then attended the Kunitachi College of Music High School at the age of 15.

Career

He started his career at 17 as a professional cabaret singer in the Ginza district in Chūō, Tokyo, when moving to Tokyo in 1952. He started working in various nightclubs singing his favourites from the French chansons such as those of Édith Piaf, Yvette Guilbert and Marie Dubas. Eventually he succeeded in getting a job at a specific club wher he worked continually for 40 years. His claim to fame came rather early in 1957, with a smash-hit called "Meke-Meke" which included a string of profanities not used in media at the time. He was also renowned for his effeminate beauty, making him a hit with the media.

Along the way he met various movie producers and actors such as Yujiro Ishihara.

Social activism and author

Miwa has written many books as well, and is known for his outspoken stances on social issues and war. This can be attributed to his having experienced the worst of it; he was in Nagasaki when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb, but he escaped relatively unhurt. He is highly critical of the government at all his concerts.

Films

Although Miwa is better known as a cabaret singer he has also appeared in a number of films, beginning as a laundry boy in Sennin Buraku in 1961 (under his real name). He also appeared in Shuji Terayama's Aomori-ken no Semushi Otoko in 1967. In 1968 he starred in and composed the theme song for Kinji Fukasaku's Black Lizard, based on Mishima's stage adaptation of the Edogawa Rampo novel; Mishima also had a cameo in the film as a statue. The next year Miwa made another film with Fukasaku, Black Rose Mansion. In recent years he has voiced characters in Hayao Miyazaki's internationally successful anime films Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle, and appeared in Takeshi Kitano's 2005 film Takeshis'.

In March 2007, Miwa performed the role of Empress Sisi in the play L’aigle à deux têtes by writer Jean Cocteau at Parco Theatre in Shibuya.

Television

Miwa is also well known as a TV personality. Hugely popular among women of all age groups, he appears in up to six shows a week and is known for his outspoken, catty, and sometimes downright rude comments about politicians and others in public life.

In 2009, Akihiro Miwa played the voice of Arceus in the Pokémon movie, Pokémon: Arceus: To a Conquering Space-Time. ^[1]

Notes

1. ^ Ryall, Julian (September 6, 2006). "On Japanese Tv, The Lady Is A Man Cross-dressing 'onnagata' Are Popular For Being Outspoken". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.allbusiness.com/services/motion-pictures/4939796-1.html. Retrieved 2009-03-16. 

External links

• Official website
• Akihiro Miwa at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Miwa, Akihiro
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 15, 1935
Place of birth	Nagasaki, Japan
Date of death
Place of death