[JAPAN] Haruko Wanibuchi Tribute - A Habsburg, Progidy Violinist, and Award-winning Actress.

This video is dedicated to Lady Haruko Wanibuchi, a descendant of the Habsburgs through her Austrian mother, Berta. Haruko's father, Kenshu Wanibuchi, met Berta in Austria while working as a classical music violin-solist. Haruko was born in Tokyo, Japan; she was raised as a Japanese lady with a touch of the Habsburgs. Like her father, Haruko was a violin prodigy; she won a violin contest at age 9. As she grew up, she became a beautiful lady. Haruko was scouted to become an actress.
Until 2007, Haruko was affiliated with Actors Promotion. She graduated from Onishi Gakuen High School. In 1995, Haruko won the Mainichi Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Sleeping Beauty.
Kenshu Wanibuchi was a professional violinist from Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture; he married Berta, a descendant of the House of Habsburg, during WW II in Austria. Their first child was born in an air raid shelter in Tokyo. Due to her Greater Germanism, Haruko is sometimes described as half Japanese and half German. Under her father's guidance, Haruko received special violin training from the age of three, and at the age of eight, she toured around Japan and was hailed as a "prodigy violinist" at the time.
In 1952, Haruko made her film debut in "Mother and Child Crane," playing the young version of Eiko (played by Fumiko Wakao). "Non-chan Rides a Cloud" (1955). Haruko met lovely Setsuko Hara, a legendary actress in Japan. In 1955, Haruko starred in "Non-chan Rides a Cloud"; she was praised as a classic beauty and "the second coming of Setsuko Hara."
In the film "Ginrei no Ouja" (1960), which starred Toni Sailer, an Austrian who won three alpine skiing gold medals at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympics, she was chosen to star opposite him because she spoke fluent German.
In her private life, Haruko and her family would spend the summer in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture; the beautiful sisters of the Wanibuchis, Haruko and Akiko, would attract attention from young Japanese men. Haruko met her first husband, Akira Hattori, the heir to the Hattori Watch Company = SEIKO, in Karuizawa in the summer. She met him on a tennis court. In a middle school interview, when asked what sports Haruko liked, she replied "Tennis and horseback riding."
In the early 1960s, Haruko appeared in many films as one of Shochiku's leading stars, and in 1965 she left Shochiku to become freelance, appearing in movies for Tohei and Daiei.
In 1968, Haruko and her husband moved to the U.S. In 1970, "Ipy Girl Ipy", a nude photo book of Haruko was published; the photos were taken by her "lover," Tad Wakamatsu, whom she later married. The highly artistic content of the magazine was highly praised and has left its mark on history.
In 1971, as a singer, Haruko released the LP "Yippee Girl Yippee," which included songs provided by Ichiro Araki. Haruko continued to appear in many films as an actress, and in the 1980s, she became more active in stage productions, while also becoming a regular in director Kaizo Hayashi's films.
In 1995, Haruko played three unique roles in films such as "Heisei Irresponsible Family Tokyo Deluxe", "Harukana Jidai no Kaidan wo" and "Sleeping Beauty", and won the Mainichi Film Award for Best Supporting Actress that year.
Haruko's father, Kenshu (1910-1986, off-stage name = Jinshiro Wanibuchi), went to the U.S. and studied under Otakar Ševčik at the Prague Conservatory. After returning to Japan, he worked as a violin performer and instructor. He is buried in the Fuchu Catholic Cemetery. A 1959 article states that "her maternal grandmother (74 years old) lives in Vienna, Austria, and her paternal grandfather (84 years old) lives in Los Angeles, California, USA."
Haruko and her second husband, a photographer Tad Wakamatsu, secretly married in New York in 1972. They had one lovely daughter, TV personality Risa Wakamatsu.


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