She made her acting debut in 1951 in
Noboru Nakamura's film
Home Sweet Home. In the 1950s,
David Lean proposed her for the main role in
The Wind Cannot Read, which is about a Japanese language instructor in India circa 1943 who falls in love with a British officer, but that idea fell through and
Yoko Tani was eventually cast in the role. Kishi married the French director
Yves Ciampi in 1957, and commuted for a while between Paris and Japan to continue her acting career. In 1963 a daughter, Delphine Ciampi, a musician and composer, was born. She divorced her husband in 1975. She has two grandchildren by her daughter. Since 1996 she has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (
UNFPA). In 2002, she won the
Japan Academy Prize for best actress for her role in the film
Kah-chan. ==Filmography (selected)==