profile

Keaki Mori

Keaki Mori was born in Sendai, the capital of Miyagi prefecture in northeastern Japan, in 1959.  

Aged nineteen she joined the prestigious Takarazuka Revue near Osaka,
a female-only troupe founded in 1914 which is among Japan’s most beloved theatre companies.
Nine years later she became a Takarazuka ‘Top Star’, the first actor from northeastern Japan to gain
this accolade. With her commanding stage presence and rich singing voice, Keaki came to be
known, through her performances in such productions as Redhead, The Rose of Versailles, The
Great Gatsby, and Rudolf Valentino, as an era-defining talent.  

After giving her award-winning performance in the play Chūshingura for the last time in 1993, Keaki
left Takarazuka Revue to embark upon a stage career that would take her throughout Japan and
beyond. Her long list of celebrated parts includes those in Izumono Okuni, Gone with the Wind,
Cabaret, Elisabeth, Only Yesterday, SUPER GIFT!, Jinsei Okiagarikoboshi, the karate musical
SAUCE, Blood Brothers, Bat Boy:The Musical, Fame The Musical, and Fiddler on the Roof.

In 2016 she appeared in the musical Takarazuka Chicago, which met with great acclaim in both
Japan, and at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater.

Keaki’s famed voice can frequently be heard in concert, as well as having been immortalised in such
recordings as the CD series REIJIN and the album Tribute to Fubuki Koshiji. Meanwhile, to radio
listeners she is known as the main star of the four-hour weekly live program Gogo-Radi!, broadcast
across Japan each Tuesday on NHK Radio One.

Away from her professional career, Keaki participates in a great many other activities, and has a
deep interest in volunteer work. She is currently an ambassador for the prefecture of Miyagi and the
city of Osaki, and a Red Feather Special Agent for the Miyagi Public Fund. As a public speaker, she
has brought inspiration to many.

Keaki Mori’s new book, Jinsei Ad Lib Katsuyo-jutsu: 88no Ai-kotoba (‘Life Impromptu: 88
Words of Love’), is published in Japanese by Kodansha. An English edition is to follow.