Yūko Kotegawa

Yūko Kotegawa (古手川祐子, Kotegawa Yūko^?, born July 16, 1959) is a Japanese actress from the city of Ōita.

Yūko graduated from high school in the city of Ōita. She placed first in the 1976 Miss Salad Girl contest (the runner-up was Yūko Natori). She landed a part in a Kanebo cosmetics commercial and joined Toho Entertainment. Her sister Nobuko is also in acting.

Yūko made her film debut in 1976 in Hoshi to Arashi and in 1979 appeared in Ah! Nomugi Toge. She was cast in the 1983 Toho adaptation of the novel The Makioka Sisters. In 1991 the Japan Academy recognized her as the Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for portraying Noriko Kai in the 1989 Toho film Hana no Furu Gogo (or Afternoon when Flowers Fell). She played Aguri (later Yōzei-in), the wife of Asano Naganori, in the 1994 Chūshingura Shijū-shichinin no Shikaku.

She appeared on television in 1977 as the female lead in Bakumatsu Miraijin on NHK. Her 1984 portrayal of Otsū, the love interest of Miyamoto Musashi in NHK's 45-part prime-time series based on the Eiji Yoshikawa novel, was a major high point of her career. She also took the female lead in the 1993 Taiga drama Homura Tatsu opposite Ken Watanabe. In 2004 NHK cast her as the leading lady in Jīji: Mago to ita Natsu with Toshiyuki Nishida.

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