Shohei Hino: The Veteran Entertainment Reporter Reflects on the Playboy of the Showa Era and His Legendary Charms

The actor Shohei Hino, known as the “Playboy of the Showa Era” and the “Heartthrob,” has passed away at the age of 75.

His carefree lifestyle, showcased on the BS and NHK travel program “Nippon Tetsudatsu Kokoro no Tabi,” became very popular. The program, which began in April 2011, continued for 13 years until this April, when his chronic back pain worsened.

I first met Hino when I was a weekly magazine reporter. He was visiting the hospital in Kita-Kamakura, run by the brother of actress Fujima Murasaki, at the time when his girlfriend, actress Mariko Mochizuki (who passed away in 2000 at the age of 50), was hospitalized.

 

I am glad we met. I am happy.

The hospital did not have proper facilities for inpatient care, but through Murasaki’s introduction, Mochizuki was admitted. It was less of a hospital stay and more of a form of “temporary lodging” or isolation from the scandal. As people began to notice, Hino also started staying at the hospital and often left for work from there.

Since it was a friend’s hospital, rumors started to spread, and I began covering the story. It seems that their first meeting was on a period drama set.

They quickly hit it off, and it didn’t take long for their relationship to turn romantic. I also learned that Mochizuki had confessed to the hospital staff, saying:

“I’m glad we met. I’m happy.”

At the time, and even now, Hino was married to a woman he wed in 1971, though he never legally divorced. They had a son and a daughter together.

Yet, despite his marriage, his relationships continued to change rapidly. A daughter was born from his relationship with Mochizuki, and he also had children with other women he dated afterward.