Reiko Katsura

Biography

Katsura was born in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture on February 8, 1937.

Ever since she was a young girl, she loved to perform in front of others. During her junior high school years, she was particularly passionate about Shin-buyo (neo-classical Japanese dance), and during the Hakata Dontaku festival, she would get her own props and costumes to dance on streets from corner to corner with her father.

During her time at Kyushu Girls' High School, now known as Fukuoka University Wakaba High School, Katsura performed in a wide variety of productions as a member of the drama club.

In 1958, after she graduated from high school, she joined the local Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting Drama Troupe. Katsura briefly served as a hostess of a radio show with her husband under the stage name "Reiko Shiratori".

In 1963, she moved to Tokyo when her husband Kikuo traveled to join Bungakuza at Hiroshi Akutagawa's invitation. During the audition, he asked her, "Why don't you try taking the test too?" She passed the audition and entered as a third-generation trainee, staying with the company for a year.

After joining Bungakuza, Katsura started her voice acting career. By turning down jobs requiring traveling far from home like location shoots for live-action productions, voice acting became her main profession.

In 1964, she started being affiliated with Haikyō.

Death

Katsura died of respiratory failure caused by aspiration pneumonia on February 22, 2026, at the age of 89. Her death was announced by her agency Haikyō a month later on March 4 of that year.

Personality

Katsura's vocal range was mezzo-soprano.

While she primarily voiced young child and baby character roles as a voice actress, she also frequently voiced older characters on stage, showing her versatility.

Her personal specialty was nihon-buyō and she was a certified practitioner of the Fujima school.

Sazae-san

In Sazae-san, Katsura voiced the characters of Ikura Namino, Rika Nozawa, and Kaori Ōzora from the 1970s until she stepped down from the roles in 2025. She initially joined the series a semi-regular cast member, but their specific signature parts naturally emerged from that experience, with acting rarely being a struggle for her, with her saying, "I've been doing this since I was young and fearless, and I just have a great time performing."

Ikura's voice was originally a sound effect, but once the character started saying "hāi", Katsura was cast in the role. Although the production team later considered having him speak normally, they ultimately decided to stick with Ikura expressing himself using only three variations: "hāi," "chān," and "babūn". Since there were only three lines of dialogue, Katsura once considered speaking in the exact same pattern every time, but felt the reactions from the people around her were poor, so after that, she would make sure to vary her speech based on the situation and the surrounding lines.

In 1997, Katsura left Sazae-san for a period of time, with voice actress Taeko Kawata serving as her substitute.

She revealed around 2022 that when she returned to voice Rika after a year, the more she tried to remember how to play the role, the harder it became. Relying too heavily on technical skills made the performance lifeless, leading to a rare slump.

Successors

After Katsura stepped down from her roles due to advancing age, the following individuals have taken over some of her voice acting roles.

Filmography