Kōtarō Yoshida | |
---|---|
吉田 鋼太郎 | |
Born |
Tokyo, Japan | January 14, 1959
Occupation(s) | Actor, theatre director |
Agents |
|
Height | 174 cm (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
Children | 1 |
Website |
aun |
Kōtarō Yoshida (吉田 鋼太郎, Yoshida Kōtarō, born January 14, 1959, in Tokyo) is a Japanese actor and theatre director. He is currently affiliated with Horipro.
Yoshida spent six years in Osaka during his grade school days, and later grew up in Hino, Tokyo. While a student at St. Paul High School, he saw the Shakespearean comedy " Twelfth Night" by the Kumo Theater Company and decided to become an actor. While studying at the Department of German Literature in the Faculty of Literature at Sophia University, he made his debut by performing Twelfth Night in the Shakespeare Study Group. He later dropped out of the same university.
After working with the Shiki Theatre Company for six months, he worked with Shakespeare Theatre, Lyming Theatre Company, and Tokyo Ichigumi before forming Performance Unit AUN with director Yoshihiro Kurita in 1997, which he also directed. He was valued as an actor capable of performing the roles required of foreign classics such as Shakespeare and Greek tragedies, and was a regular in Yukio Ninagawa's productions. He is a close friend of Tatsuya Fujiwara and Shun Oguri, who often appeared in Ninagawa's works. Starting in 2010, he expanded his activities into television dramas and films on the advice of Oguri.
Yoshida played Hanzawa's boss in Hanzawa Naoki in 2013 and Densuke Kanō, who was modeled after businessman Den'emon Itō, in Hanako to Anne in 2014. These performances attracted attention, which led to an increase in his appearances in films, his first starring role being in Tokyo Sentimental.
He got married on January 1, 2016 (his fourth marriage, including one de facto marriage) and hosted a wedding in February 2017. In October 2016, he succeeded Yukio Ninagawa as the second artistic director of the Sai no Kuni Shakespeare Series.
Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1985 | Twelfth Night | Harumi Nakashima | |||
1997 | Othello | Othello | Yukio Ninagawa | ||
1998 | The Merchant of Venice | Shylock | Norio Deguchi | ||
2001 | Hamlet | Hamlet | Norio Deguchi | ||
2008 | King Lear | Earl of Gloucester | Yukio Ninagawa | ||
2014 | Julius Caesar | Cassius | Yukio Ninagawa | ||
2015 | Death Note: The Musical | Ryuk | Tamiya Kuriyama |
Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Surely Someday | Kitō | Shun Oguri | ||
2015 | Assassination Classroom | Kensaku Ōno | Eiichirō Hasumi | ||
Shinjuku Swan | Amano | Sion Sono | |||
2017 | To Each His Own | Mamoru Yamagami | Izuru Narushima | ||
Teiichi: Battle of Supreme High | Jōsuke Akaba | Akira Nagai | |||
The Third Murder | Daisuke Settsu | Hirokazu Koreeda | |||
Mixed Doubles | Seiichirō Yamashita | Junichi Ishikawa | |||
Shinjuku Swan II | Amano | Sion Sono | |||
2018 | The Lies She Loved | Kazuhito Nakae | |||
Love × Doc | Osamu Suzuki | ||||
Over Drive | Issei Tsuzuki | Eiichirō Hasumi | |||
2019 | Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration | Diabolo (voice) | Shinnosuke Yakuwa | ||
Ossan's Love the Movie | Musashi Kurosawa | Tōichirō Rutō | |||
Brave Father Online: Our Story of Final Fantasy XIV | Akio's father | Teruo Noguchi | Lead role | ||
Dragon Quest: Your Story | Ladja (voice) | Takashi Yamazaki | |||
Lupin III: The First | Lambert (voice) | Takashi Yamazaki | |||
Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion the Movie: Mirai Kara Kita Shinsoku no ALFA-X | Ohanefu (voice) | Takahiro Ikezoe | |||
2020 | Kaiji: Final Game | Yoshihiro Kurosaki | Tōya Satō | [1] | |
From Today, It's My Turn!! | Ichirō Mitsuhashi | Yūichi Fukuda | |||
2021 | Cube | Kazumasa Andō | Yasuhiko Shimizu | [2] | |
Last of the Wolves | Yōzō Watafune | Kazuya Shiraishi | [3] | ||
2022 | The Way of the Househusband | Kondō | Tōichirō Rutō | [4] | |
2023 | Yudō | Critic | Masayuki Suzuki | [5] | |
We're Millennials. Got a Problem?: The Movie | Iwao Aso | Nobuo Mizuta | [6] | ||
2024 | Love You as the World Ends: The Final | Saijō | Shintarō Sugawara | [7] | |
Hey Handsome!! | Gentaro Ito | Masatoshi Yamaguchi | Lead role | [8] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | The Brothers Karamazov | Bunzō Kurosawa | ||
Hanzawa Naoki | Hiroshi Naitō | |||
2014 | Hanako and Anne | Densuke Kanō | Asadora | |
Mozu | Jin Nakagami | |||
2016 | Sanada Maru | Oda Nobunaga | Taiga drama | |
Totto TV | Hisaya Morishige | |||
Yuriko-san no Ehon | Hiroshi Harashima | |||
We're Millennials. Got a Problem? | Iwao Aso | [6] | ||
2018 | From Today, It's My Turn!!' | Ichirō Mitsuhashi | ||
2018–24 | Ossan's Love | Musashi Kurosawa | 3 seasons | [9] |
2019 | Ieyasu, Edo wo Tateru | Gotō Tokujō | ||
2020 | The Yagyu Conspiracy | Yagyū Munenori | Lead role; TV movie | |
The Sun Stands Still: The Eclipse | Tōru Nagashima | |||
2020–21 | Awaiting Kirin | Matsunaga Hisahide | Taiga drama | |
2021 | Nakamura Nakazo: Shusse no Kizahashi | Miniseries | [10] | |
Japan Sinks: People of Hope | Mamoru Amami | Special appearance | [11] | |
2022 | Hey Handsome!! | Gentaro Ito | Lead role | [12] |
2025 | Anpan | Kamaji Asada | Asadora | [13] |
Year | Award ceremony | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | 7th International Drama Festival in Tokyo | Best Supporting Actor | Won [14] |
2018 | 11th International Drama Festival in Tokyo | Best Supporting Actor | Won |
Kōtarō Yoshida | |
---|---|
吉田 鋼太郎 | |
Born |
Tokyo, Japan | January 14, 1959
Occupation(s) | Actor, theatre director |
Agents |
|
Height | 174 cm (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
Children | 1 |
Website |
aun |
Kōtarō Yoshida (吉田 鋼太郎, Yoshida Kōtarō, born January 14, 1959, in Tokyo) is a Japanese actor and theatre director. He is currently affiliated with Horipro.
Yoshida spent six years in Osaka during his grade school days, and later grew up in Hino, Tokyo. While a student at St. Paul High School, he saw the Shakespearean comedy " Twelfth Night" by the Kumo Theater Company and decided to become an actor. While studying at the Department of German Literature in the Faculty of Literature at Sophia University, he made his debut by performing Twelfth Night in the Shakespeare Study Group. He later dropped out of the same university.
After working with the Shiki Theatre Company for six months, he worked with Shakespeare Theatre, Lyming Theatre Company, and Tokyo Ichigumi before forming Performance Unit AUN with director Yoshihiro Kurita in 1997, which he also directed. He was valued as an actor capable of performing the roles required of foreign classics such as Shakespeare and Greek tragedies, and was a regular in Yukio Ninagawa's productions. He is a close friend of Tatsuya Fujiwara and Shun Oguri, who often appeared in Ninagawa's works. Starting in 2010, he expanded his activities into television dramas and films on the advice of Oguri.
Yoshida played Hanzawa's boss in Hanzawa Naoki in 2013 and Densuke Kanō, who was modeled after businessman Den'emon Itō, in Hanako to Anne in 2014. These performances attracted attention, which led to an increase in his appearances in films, his first starring role being in Tokyo Sentimental.
He got married on January 1, 2016 (his fourth marriage, including one de facto marriage) and hosted a wedding in February 2017. In October 2016, he succeeded Yukio Ninagawa as the second artistic director of the Sai no Kuni Shakespeare Series.
Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1985 | Twelfth Night | Harumi Nakashima | |||
1997 | Othello | Othello | Yukio Ninagawa | ||
1998 | The Merchant of Venice | Shylock | Norio Deguchi | ||
2001 | Hamlet | Hamlet | Norio Deguchi | ||
2008 | King Lear | Earl of Gloucester | Yukio Ninagawa | ||
2014 | Julius Caesar | Cassius | Yukio Ninagawa | ||
2015 | Death Note: The Musical | Ryuk | Tamiya Kuriyama |
Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Surely Someday | Kitō | Shun Oguri | ||
2015 | Assassination Classroom | Kensaku Ōno | Eiichirō Hasumi | ||
Shinjuku Swan | Amano | Sion Sono | |||
2017 | To Each His Own | Mamoru Yamagami | Izuru Narushima | ||
Teiichi: Battle of Supreme High | Jōsuke Akaba | Akira Nagai | |||
The Third Murder | Daisuke Settsu | Hirokazu Koreeda | |||
Mixed Doubles | Seiichirō Yamashita | Junichi Ishikawa | |||
Shinjuku Swan II | Amano | Sion Sono | |||
2018 | The Lies She Loved | Kazuhito Nakae | |||
Love × Doc | Osamu Suzuki | ||||
Over Drive | Issei Tsuzuki | Eiichirō Hasumi | |||
2019 | Doraemon: Nobita's Chronicle of the Moon Exploration | Diabolo (voice) | Shinnosuke Yakuwa | ||
Ossan's Love the Movie | Musashi Kurosawa | Tōichirō Rutō | |||
Brave Father Online: Our Story of Final Fantasy XIV | Akio's father | Teruo Noguchi | Lead role | ||
Dragon Quest: Your Story | Ladja (voice) | Takashi Yamazaki | |||
Lupin III: The First | Lambert (voice) | Takashi Yamazaki | |||
Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion the Movie: Mirai Kara Kita Shinsoku no ALFA-X | Ohanefu (voice) | Takahiro Ikezoe | |||
2020 | Kaiji: Final Game | Yoshihiro Kurosaki | Tōya Satō | [1] | |
From Today, It's My Turn!! | Ichirō Mitsuhashi | Yūichi Fukuda | |||
2021 | Cube | Kazumasa Andō | Yasuhiko Shimizu | [2] | |
Last of the Wolves | Yōzō Watafune | Kazuya Shiraishi | [3] | ||
2022 | The Way of the Househusband | Kondō | Tōichirō Rutō | [4] | |
2023 | Yudō | Critic | Masayuki Suzuki | [5] | |
We're Millennials. Got a Problem?: The Movie | Iwao Aso | Nobuo Mizuta | [6] | ||
2024 | Love You as the World Ends: The Final | Saijō | Shintarō Sugawara | [7] | |
Hey Handsome!! | Gentaro Ito | Masatoshi Yamaguchi | Lead role | [8] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | The Brothers Karamazov | Bunzō Kurosawa | ||
Hanzawa Naoki | Hiroshi Naitō | |||
2014 | Hanako and Anne | Densuke Kanō | Asadora | |
Mozu | Jin Nakagami | |||
2016 | Sanada Maru | Oda Nobunaga | Taiga drama | |
Totto TV | Hisaya Morishige | |||
Yuriko-san no Ehon | Hiroshi Harashima | |||
We're Millennials. Got a Problem? | Iwao Aso | [6] | ||
2018 | From Today, It's My Turn!!' | Ichirō Mitsuhashi | ||
2018–24 | Ossan's Love | Musashi Kurosawa | 3 seasons | [9] |
2019 | Ieyasu, Edo wo Tateru | Gotō Tokujō | ||
2020 | The Yagyu Conspiracy | Yagyū Munenori | Lead role; TV movie | |
The Sun Stands Still: The Eclipse | Tōru Nagashima | |||
2020–21 | Awaiting Kirin | Matsunaga Hisahide | Taiga drama | |
2021 | Nakamura Nakazo: Shusse no Kizahashi | Miniseries | [10] | |
Japan Sinks: People of Hope | Mamoru Amami | Special appearance | [11] | |
2022 | Hey Handsome!! | Gentaro Ito | Lead role | [12] |
2025 | Anpan | Kamaji Asada | Asadora | [13] |
Year | Award ceremony | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | 7th International Drama Festival in Tokyo | Best Supporting Actor | Won [14] |
2018 | 11th International Drama Festival in Tokyo | Best Supporting Actor | Won |