is a Japanese actress. During her 70 years spanning career, she has worked with directors like

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Uget ...

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...

and

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily shomin-geki ("common people drama") films with female protagonists, ...

, appearing in films such as ''

Tokyo Story is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama about an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. Upon release, it did not immediately gain international recogni ...

'', '' Sansho the Bailiff'', ''

The Bad Sleep Well is a 1960 Japanese crime mystery film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It was the first film to be produced under Kurosawa's own independent production company. It was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival. The film stars Toshiro ...

'', ''

Mothra is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that first appeared in the 1961 film '' Mothra'', produced and distributed by Toho Studios. Mothra has appeared in several Toho ''tokusatsu'' films, most often as a recurring character in the ''Godzilla'' ...

'' and '' High and Low''.

Biography

Kagawa was born in Asō (currently

Namegata is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 32,144 in 11,412 households and a population density of 144.5 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 35.9%. The total area of ...

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

, 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 ''The Tokyo Shimbun'' (東京新聞, ''Tōkyō Shinbun'', literally ''Tokyo Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published by The Chunichi Shimbun Company. The group publishes newspapers under the brand name of The Tokyo Shimbun in the Tokyo Met ...

'' in 1949 and gave her film debut the following year in ''Mado kara tobidase''. She regularly appeared in films by Akira Kusosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse,

Shirō Toyoda was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed over 60 films during his career spanning 50 years. Career Born in Kyoto, Toyoda moved to Tokyo after finishing high school and studied scriptwriting under the pioneering film director ...

, Hiroshi Shimizu and others. Kagawa married in 1963 and followed her husband, a newspaper reporter, to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. After her return from the US, she acted in television dramas until she appeared again on the big screen in

Satsuo Yamamoto was a Japanese film director. Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima City. After leaving Waseda University, where he had become affiliated with left-wing groups, he joined the Shochiku film studios in 1933, where he worked as an assistant director to ...

's ''Karei-naru ichizoku'' (1974). In 2011, the

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo The in Tokyo, Japan, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting modern Japanese art. This Tokyo museum is also known by the English acronym MOMAT (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). The museum is known for its collection of 20th-centu ...

, honored her long career and contribution to Japanese cinema with an exhibition dedicated to her.

Selected filmography

Films

* ''Tokyo Heroine'' (1950) * ''

Man in the Storm is a 1952 Japanese film directed by Kiyoshi Saeki.嵐の中の母
'' Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...

'' (1952) * '' Lightning (1952 film), Lightning'' (1952) * ''

'' (1953) * ''

Love Letter A love letter is an expression of love in written form. However delivered, the letter may be anything from a short and simple message of love to a lengthy explanation and description of feelings. History One of the oldest references to a lo ...

'' (1953) * '' Sansho the Bailiff'' (1954) * ''

The Crucified Lovers is a 1954 Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It was adapted from Monzaemon Chikamatsu's 1715 bunraku play ''Daikyōji Mukashi Goyomi''. The film was presented at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, Plot Mohei is an apprentice to Ishun, t ...

'' (1954) * ''

Onna no Koyomi is a 1954 Japanese film directed by Seiji Hisamatsu based on the short story collection by the Japanese woman writer Sakae Tsuboi. It was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Cast * Kinuyo Tanaka as Michi Saeki * Yōko Sugi as Kuniko Hy ...

'' (1954) * ''The Shiinomi School'' * ''

Christ in Bronze is a 1955 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Minoru Shibuya. It was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Cast * Eiji Okada * Kazuko Okada * Osamu Takizawa * Shinobu Araki * Akira Ishihama * Kyōko Kagawa * Kinzo Shin * Kōji ...

'' (1956) * ''

A Cat, Shozo, and Two Women , also titled ''Shozo, a Cat, and Two Women'', is a 1956 Japanese comedy film directed by Shirō Toyoda. It is based on Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's 1936 novella ''A Cat, a Man, and Two Women''. Plot Kitchenware salesman Shōzō shows more affection ...

'' (1956) * ''

Shūu is a 1956 Japanese comedy-drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on a play by Kunio Kishida. Plot The marriage of Fumiko and Ryōtarō Namiki has gone stale, with both of them constantly arguing about what to do on a day off, or her c ...

'' (1956) * ''

An Osaka Story is a 1957 black-and-white Japanese historical drama film directed by Kōzaburō Yoshimura. The film had originally been planned by Kenji Mizoguchi, who had adapted several stories by Saikaku Ihara into a script. After Mizoguchi's death, the proj ...

'' (1957) * ''

The Lower Depths ''The Lower Depths'' (russian: На дне, translit=Na dne, literally: ''At the bottom'') is a play by Russian dramatist Maxim Gorky written in 1902 and produced by the Moscow Arts Theatre on December 18, 1902 under the direction of Konstantin ...

'' (1957) * ''A Holiday in Tokyo'' (1958) * ''

Anzukko is a 1958 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on a novel by Saisei Murō. Plot Kyoko, daughter of successful writer Hirayama, rejects several marriage prospects before taking Ryokichi, owner of a small used book store, ...

'' (1958) * ''

The Three Treasures is a 1959 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki. The film is based on the legends ''Kojiki'' and '' Nihon Shoki'' and the origins of ''Shinto''. The film was the highest-grossing film of 1959 for Toho and the second highest grossing domestic ...

'' (1959) * ''

'' (1960) * ''

'' (1961) * ''

The Story of Osaka Castle is a 1961 Japanese drama film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film is based on historical events taking place in Japan during the beginning of the 17th century. Plot The plot is set about a decade aft ...

'' (1961) * '' High and Low'' (1963) * ''

Red Beard is a 1965 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, in his last collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. Based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, '' Akahige Shinryōtan'', the film takes p ...

'' (1965) * ''

Karei-naru Ichizoku is a 1973 novel by Toyoko Yamasaki. It has been adapted into a film in 1974 and then three times as a television series in 1974, 2007, and 2021. Plot Set in the post-World War II climate of the 1960s in Kobe, the show explores the struggle for po ...

'' (1974) * '' Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director'' (1975) * '' Tora-san's Dream of Spring'' (1979) * ''

Madadayo is a 1993 Japanese comedy-drama film. It is the thirtieth and final film to be completed by Akira Kurosawa. It was screened out of competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Lang ...

'' (1993) * '' After Life'' (1998) * '' Letters from the Mountains'' (2002) * '' Mifune: The Last Samurai'' (2016) * ''Tenshi no Iru Toshokan'' (2017) * ''Shimamori no Tō'' (2022) * ''The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai'' (2022)

Television

* ''

Hana no Shōgai is a 1963 Japanese television series. It is the 1st NHK taiga drama. Story Ten to Chi to deals with the Sengoku period. Based on Funahashi Seiichi's novels "Hana no Shōgai". The story chronicles the life of Ii Naosuke. Cast * Onoe Shoroku ...

'' (1963) * ''Kasuga no Tsubone'' (1989) * ''

In This Corner of the World is a manga series written and illustrated by Fumiyo Kōno which ran from 2007 to 2009 in ''Weekly Manga Action''. It follows the life of Suzu Urano, a young bride with her new family living on the outskirts of Kure City during the Secon ...

'' (2018)

Honours

Medal with Purple Ribbon are medals awarded by the Government of Japan. They are awarded to individuals who have done meritorious deeds and also to those who have achieved excellence in their field of work. The Medals of Honor were established on December 7, 1881, and we ...

(1998) * Kinuyo Tanaka Award (1993) *

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

(2004) * FIAF Award (2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kagawa, Kyoko 1931 births Living people Japanese film actresses 20th-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese actresses Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class