Mari Natsuki, born Junko Nakajima on 2 May 1952 in Toshima, Tokyo, is a Japanese singer, actress, and dancer. She studied at Oka Girls High School in Toshima and began her musical career in 1973. She has appeared in television series and films since the 1970s, with notable early roles including Kinji Fukasaku's Legend of the Eight Samurai (1983) and Hideo Gosha's Fireflies in the North (1984), later joining Yōji Yamada's long-running Tora-san film series beginning in 1989. She received Japan Academy Prize nominations for Best Supporting Actress in 1985, for Fireflies in the North and Legend of the Eight Samurai, and again in 2003, for Ping Pong. In 1993 she conceived the musical dance production L'Impressionniste, which was a major success in Japan and toured Europe; she went on to create further musical ballets, including a sequel to L'Impressionniste in 2009. In 2001 she provided the voice of Yubaba and Zeniba in Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, a film that went on to win an Academy Award in 2003.
