Yoshiko Kuga, a star of noble birth, loved by famous directors such as Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu

 

Yoshiko Kuga = February 1995

Yoshiko Kuga, an actress from the nobility, died of aspiration pneumonia on the 9th. She was 93 years old. She was known as a graceful movie star, but she also had a strong will inside, having entered the film industry despite strong opposition from those around her and working in an independent production company. This presence made her beloved by many Showa era movie directors.

Ms. Kuga was born into the Koga family, a marquis, in 1931. After hearing the Emperor's radio broadcast announcing the end of the war, she decided to become an actress. In 1946, she passed the Toho New Face audition, which was the gateway to acting at the time. She dropped out of Joshi Gakuin Junior High School with the aim of entering the film industry, but her family was strongly opposed, saying it would "affect the family background." She transferred her family register to a relative, and changed the reading of her stage name from her real name, "Koga Haruko," to "Kuga Yoshiko." The following year, she made her debut in "Tales of Four Loves" as a schoolgirl. Her delicate and pure appearance earned her a reputation as an "aristocratic star."

From then on, she was loved by many famous directors as a strong-willed female lead star. In 1948, she attracted attention for her role as a young girl in Akira Kurosawa's "Drunken Angel," and in 1950 she appeared in "Until We Meet Again" (directed by Imai Tadashi), a film about a man and woman torn apart by war. The scene in which they kiss through glass became known as one of the most famous scenes in Japanese film history. In 1951, she moved to Daiei, and in 1954, in an attempt to create films independently, she founded the all-female independent film production company "Ninjin Club" with Arima Ineko and Kishi Keiko.

After that, she appeared in films such as "The Garden of Women" (1929) directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and "Red Spider Lily" (1933) directed by Yasujiro Ozu. Although she initially focused on film appearances, she also hosted the Fuji TV show for housewives "You at 3 o'clock" for one year from 1944.

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