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Gendai Production President/Producer Hisako Yamada Dies at 92

Gendai Production announced on Wednesday that producer Hisako Yamada died on January 13 due to aspiration pneumonia. There will be a memorial service for her on March 25. She was 92.

Yamada served as the president of Gendai Production, founded by her late husband and director Tengo Yamada.

Yamada was a producer of multiple works, including the 1976 live-action film for Barefoot Gen, directed by her husband. She directed the 1996 Angel ga Tonda Hi anime film, based on her own life raising her daughter who had intellectual disabilities. She also directed Ashita no Kibō -Kanashimi yo Arigatō: Takae Tsuneo Monogatari- (Tomorrow's Hope -Thank You, Sadness: The Story of Tsuneo Takae-), the anime film recounting the life of Japanese double-arm amputee Tsuneo Takae. She produced the Kim no Jūjika anime, directed by her husband. She had recently worked on the 2024 Watashi no Kaasan: Tenshi no Shi live-action film about a mother with intellectual disabilities.

Aside from her work as a producer and director, she was also an actress, a writer, a member of the band "Western Rose," and a lecturer on topics such as welfare and education.

Sources: Gendai Production, Asahi Shimbun