Japan's beloved actress Nakayama Miho suddenly died at the age of 54, and today (the 8th) marks the first anniversary.
On Dec. 6 last year, according to multiple foreign media outlets including Yahoo Japan, Nakayama Miho was found dead at her home in Shibuya, Tokyo. An agency staff member discovered Nakayama Miho collapsed in the bathtub inside the bathroom and reported it, but she was already dead. No suicide note or drugs were found at the scene. According to local media, she was found sitting upright in the bathtub and leaning forward.
What made the news of Nakayama Miho's death even more shocking was that she had exchanged cell phone messages with agency staff as late as 7 a.m. on the day she died, and the day before she had shared an update on social media and interacted with fans.
After Nakayama Miho was found dead in the bathtub, various suspicions began to surface about whether she had taken extreme measures or had died suddenly from bad luck. Some suggested the possibility that she died of a heat shock-related natural death.
However, investigators said the result was "an accidental death by drowning during bathing" and quelled those suspicions.
The last social media post the deceased made before her death was a work by French artist Louise Bourgeois. The work included the line "I have been to hell. And I can say it was really wonderful."
Meanwhile, Nakayama Miho was a Japanese singer and actress who was loved and nicknamed "Miforin." During the peak of her career in the 1980s and 1990s, she was widely regarded as the most beautiful woman in Japan and captured fans' hearts as a star of numerous popular TV shows and as a J-pop singer.
She received international acclaim for the film "Love Letter" directed by Shunji Iwai and had many fans in Korea as well. At a past Busan International Film Festival appearance, she expressed gratitude for Korean fans' continued love, saying "I think the reason I have been loved in Korea for a long time is because of good works," and "I think 'Love Letter' is what allowed me to be loved by Korean fans for a long time."
In 2017 she also said, "It's already been 25 years since 'Love Letter' was released, and I'm still so happy and grateful that people say 'Ogenki desu ka.'"
"Love Letter" was explosively popular when it was released domestically, attracting 1.4 million viewers, the first time a Japanese film achieved that. "Love Letter" is regarded as the ultimate melodrama for its mesmerizing cinematography set against the snowy mountains of Hokkaido and Nakayama Miho's passionate performance, which cemented her status as an icon of the era both as an actress and a singer.
Nakayama Miho also appeared in the films "Tokyo Clear Skies," "Saonara Itsuka" and numerous other works, and in 2018 she co-starred with actor Kim Jae-wook in the film "Nabi Jam." She was also beloved as a singer, with album sales exceeding 17 million copies.
"She was an actress I liked since my teens. She always shone and was beautiful, and I remember copying her hairstyle a lot," "I can't believe she is gone. I want to see her again," "She was the same age as me and gave me a lot of strength," "I am so sad and disappointed beyond words that she is gone. I want to tell her 'thank you for everything'" and other heartfelt condolences have continued.
Nakayama Miho had a son with musician ex-husband Hitonari Tsuji. Months after the deceased suddenly passed away, controversy arose because inheritance issues had not been resolved.
[Photo] ©Getty Images (unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited), film stills, SNS
[OSEN]