[1][5] In 2000, she released her single, One Way Drive, featuring guitar work and production by Tomoyasu Hotei, who also co-wrote the song with Esumi.
Esumi is married to Fuji TV director Shin Hirano[1] and is distantly related to Koji Ezumi, a goalkeeper for Omiya Ardija.
She was injured in 1989 while playing and decided to pursue a career in show business after watching actress and singer Miki Imai on television while recovering in the hospital.
Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle gave her acting high praise, describing it as "extraordinary" and stating she played the role with "delicacy and physical grace".
The title song was used as the ending theme to the second Shomuni series, with the lyrics by Esumi and the music by guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei.
Esumi was described as "stunning" in her lead role of Stray Cat in the 2001 Pistol Opera,[7] one of Seijun Suzuki last films.
[12] In a 20 May 2007 article in the Asahi Shimbun, Esumi revealed that her younger brother had died at the age of 36 the previous May of complications due to cancer.