She was the winner of the first Miss Nippon Grand Prix in 1950,[1] and appeared in over 100 films between 1953 and 1963,[2] including works by directors Yasujirō Ozu, Kon Ichikawa, Shirō Toyoda and Kōzaburō Yoshimura.

Yamamoto was born on 11 December 1931 in Nishi ward, Osaka, and graduated from Kyoto Prefectural First High School for Girls (now Kyoto Prefectural Ohki High School).

[4] Yamamoto was considered one of Japan's most beautiful women, with, in the words of film historian Catherine Russell, "noble" features that represented the classic ideal of Japanese beauty.

[5] As such, she was well-suited for costumed parts in the era's popular period dramas, with her less-frequent modern roles (in films like Ozu's Equinox Flower and Ichikawa's Being Two Isn't Easy) often shot in "movie star" closeups that placed her apart from the films' contemporary storytelling.

The head of Daiei, Masaichi Nagata, refused, dismissed her, and prevented her from finding work at other film studios via the Five-Company Agreement.