Mitsu Dan (壇 蜜, Dan Mitsu, born December 3, 1980) is the professional name of Shizuka Saitō (齋藤 支靜加), a Japanese actress, gravure idol, and writer.[1] She has played multiple lead roles in television and film, including Naoko in the 2013 erotic thriller Amai Muchi, for which she received a Newcomer of the Year award at the 37th Japan Academy Prize ceremony.
Early life and education
Mitsu Dan was born on December 3, 1980, in Akita Prefecture, Japan.[2] After graduating from Showa Women's University, she earned a teaching certificate, worked in a funeral parlor, tried but failed to start a sweets shop, and worked as a hostess in a Ginza club before becoming a gravure idol in 2010.[3][4]
Career
Dan became known for her role in the BDSM-themed erotic thriller movie Be My Slave (2012), a performance that Giovanni Fazio of The Japan Times summarized as "a starlet is born."[5] The next year she played a lead role in the 2013 erotic thriller Amai Muchi (甘い鞭, Sweet Whip), which was directed by Takashi Ishii.[6] At the 37th Japan Academy Prize ceremony Dan was recognized as a Newcomer of the Year for her performance in Amai Muchi.[7]
Over the next few years Dan appeared in numerous television dramas, variety programs, movies, and advertising campaigns, including the kaiju parody Chikyû bôei mibôjin (地球防衛未亡人, Earth Defense Widow),[8] the 90th NHKasadoraHanako to Anne,[9] a 2015 recruiting commercial for the Japan Self-Defense Forces,[10] the 2016 Hulu Japan drama Crow's Blood,[11] and the 2017 film Sekigahara.[12] In 2018 Dan became a weekly host of the radio program Makoto Ōtake Golden Radio![13] The next year she appeared in the 99th NHK asadora Manpuku.[14]
In July 2017 Dan starred in an official tourism promotion video for Miyagi Prefecture that was created using 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami reconstruction funds and published online.[15] Female members of the Miyagi Prefectural Assembly, along with members of the public, claimed that the video was sexually suggestive and demanded that it be taken down.[16] Miyagi governor Yoshihiro Murai initially defended the video on the grounds that it successfully brought attention to the prefecture, but after receiving hundreds of complaints in a month he ordered the video withdrawn.[15] Later that year the Japanese Ministry of the Environment appointed Mitsu Dan as a public ambassador to promote home energy conservation.[17]
Dan has written books in multiple genres, including the autobiographical book Mitsu no aji (蜜の味, A Taste of Honey), advice books Erosu no osahō (エロスのお作法, The Rules of Love) and Dōshiyō (どうしよう, What Should I Do?), and the food essay collection Tabetai no (たべたいの, I Want to Eat).[4][18][19] She made her fiction debut in 2016 with a story in the Bungeishunjū literary magazine Ooru Yomimono (オール読物, All Reading).[20] Since April 2017 she has written a monthly advice column for Otokemachi, an online publication of Yomiuri Shimbun.[2] In March 2018 her story "Takumiharahara" (タクミハラハラ) was published in the literary magazine Bungakukai.[21]
^轟, 夕起夫 (September 30, 2013). "『甘い鞭』（R18+）壇蜜 単独インタビュー". Cinema Today (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
