The official website for actor, voice actor, and singer Akihiro Miwa (real name Ahihiro Maruyama) announced on Sunday that Miwa died on June 20 of old age. He was 91.
【速報 JUST IN 】歌手で俳優の美輪明宏さん死去「ヨイトマケの唄」など知られるhttps://t.co/QJbOutBstT #nhk_news
— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) June 28, 2026
Miwa’s agency stated that due to his advanced age he had been cutting back on work over the last year. Three months ago, his health started to deteriorate, and he had been convalescing at home since then. The announcement stated “at the end he expressed gratitude by saying ‘thank you’ and quietly closed his eyes.” The statement added his funeral for close relatives only was adorned with the yellow roses that he loved.
In anime, Miwa is best known for the roles of the Witch of the Waste in Howl’s Moving Castle and Moro in Princess Mononoke. Miwa also had roles in Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life as Arceus, Harmagedon as Froy, and in Maeterlinck’s Blue Bird as Queen of the Night.
Image via Amazon
© Akihiro Miwa, CHUOKORON-SHINSHA. INC.
Miwa was born in 1935 in Nagasaki, and he was in Nagasaki at the time of the atom bombing in 1945. He later recalled his experience to the Asahi Shimbun in 2009.
He went to Tokyo after graduating middle school, and became a professional singer at the age of 16. He was known for singing classical, chanson, tango, Latin, and jazz, and sang at a chanson cafe in Ginza. His song “Meke Meke” became a hit in 1957, and he is perhaps most famous as a singer-songwriter for his song “Yoitomake no Uta,” which has also been covered many times. He often performed and appeared in public in drag, and was known for his trademark yellow hair.
Miwa was also a writer, having written many books such as Shiawase no Oban Furumai (Lavish Banquet of Happiness, pictured right).
He also appeared on stage, television, and film, including in Takeshi Kitano’s 2005 film Takeshis’. He famously also appeared in Yukio Mishima’s Black Lizard stage play based on Ranpo Edogawa’s novel.
In 2018 he was honored as an “Honorary Citizen of Tokyo” for “demonstrating a way of life that transcended gender in post-war Japan, and for longstanding contributions in stage, film, television, lectures, and writing.”
Sources: Akihiro Miwa’s official website, The Yomiuri Shimbun’s The Japan News, NHK News’ X/Twitter account, Mainichi Shimbun, Music Natalie
