Kyōko Kagawa
Kyōko Kagawa is a Japanese actress. During her career spanning 70 years, she has worked with directors like Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse, appearing in films such as Tokyo Story, Sansho the Bailiff, The Bad Sleep Well, Mothra, and High and Low.
Biography
Kagawa was born in Asō, Ibaraki Prefecture, and graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Tenth High School for Girls in 1949. She was discovered in the "New Face Nomination" contest run by the Tokyo Shimbun in 1949 and gave her film debut the following year in Mado kara tobidase. A prolific actress, she collaborated with directors like Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Kinuyo Tanaka, Hiroshi Shimizu, Shiro Toyoda, Kozaburo Yoshimura, Ishiro Honda, Yuzo Kawashima, Hiroshi Inagaki and Hirokazu Koreeda.Kagawa married in 1963. After appearing in Kurosawa's Red Beard, she followed her husband, a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, to New York. Upon her return, she acted in television dramas until she appeared again on the big screen in Satsuo Yamamoto's Karei-naru Ichizoku.
In 2011, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, honored her long career and contribution to Japanese cinema with an exhibition dedicated to her.
Selected filmography
Films
Tokyo Heroine Man in the Storm Mother Lightning Tokyo Story Love Letter Sansho the Bailiff The Crucified Lovers Onna no Koyomi The Shiinomi SchoolChrist in Bronze A Cat, Shozo, and Two Women Shūu An Osaka Story The Lower Depths A Holiday in Tokyo Anzukko The Three Treasures The Bad Sleep Well Mothra The Story of Osaka Castle Girls of the Night High and Low Red Beard Karei-naru Ichizoku Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director Tora-san's Dream of Spring Madadayo After Life Letters from the Mountains Mifune: The Last Samurai Tenshi no Iru Toshokan Shimamori- ''The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai''