was a Japanese actress and singer. Born as Masako Kobayashi in Matsushiro, Nagano,

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

as the fifth daughter and last of nine children of Tohta Kobayashi, she was adopted by the Hasegawa family in Ueda at the age of six and in 1900 graduated Ueda school. She had to return to her birth family after her adopted father died, however in the year of her return, her natural father also died. At the age of 17 she moved to Tokyo. She married in 1903 at the arrangement of relatives but divorced within a year. In 1908 she married Seisuke Maezawa from the same country village and in 1909 joined Shoyo Tsubouchi's newly established theatre group only to divorce Maezawa the following October 1910. Matsui first became famous in 1911 for her portrayal of Nora in ''

A Doll's House ''A Doll's House'' (Danish and nb, Et dukkehjem; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having bee ...

''. In 1913 after establishing the Geijutsu-za theatre troupe with the

shingeki was a leading form of theatre in Japan that was based on modern realism. Born in the early years of the 20th century, it sought to be similar to modern Western theatre, putting on the works of the ancient Greek classics, William Shakespeare, Moli� ...

director Hogetsu Shimamura, she became an acclaimed actress thanks to her performance in the role of Katusha in Tolstoy's ''

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...

'' (translated by Shimamura). " Katyusha's song", written by

Shinpei Nakayama was a Japanese songwriter, famous for his many children's songs and popular songs (''ryūkōka'') that have become deeply embedded in Japanese popular culture. Nakayama was born in Nagano Prefecture, Nakano City, in 1887. His father died while ...

, which she sang in the film, became a huge hit selling over 20,000 copies at the time. This was said to be the first ''

ryūkōka is a Japanese music genre, musical genre. The term originally denoted any kind of "popular music" in Japanese, and is the East Asian cultural sphere, sinic reading of ''hayariuta'', used for commercial music of Edo period, Edo Period. Therefore, ...

'' song. After Shimamura died of the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

on November 5, 1918, she committed suicide by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

on January 5, 1919. It was Matsui's wish to be buried alongside Shimamura, with whom she had been having an affair. However, her wish was not to be granted and her grave lies with her family in her hometown of Matsushiro. Remains are also buried in the Tamon Temple in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The movie '' The Love of Sumako the Actress'' was produced in 1947 based on her life.

References

4. ^ (Japanese) “People of the Shinshu region”. Shinano Mainichi Newspaper. 1966 5. “Modern Girls, Shining Stars, the Skies of Tokyo – 5 Japanese women”, Phyllis Birnbaum, 1999

External links

* 1886 births 1919 suicides 20th-century Japanese actresses Japanese stage actresses Musicians from Nagano Prefecture Suicides by hanging in Japan 20th-century Japanese women singers 20th-century Japanese singers 1919 deaths {{Japan-singer-stub