was a Japanese actress, also credited as Ura Mita.
Career
In 1912, she and her actor husband were co-founders of the Modern Theatre Society (''Kindaigeki Kyokai'') in Tokyo, formed to bring new Western works to Japanese audiences.
[Ryunosuke Akutagawa]
''Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories''
(Penguin 2006): note 32. In 1914, Yamakawa was considered one of "the foremost interpreters of roles in Western translations" among Japanese actresses.
[Z. Kincaid]
"Leading Actresses of Japan"
''The Theatre'' (July 1914): 31. Among her notable roles were
Henrik Ibsen's
Hedda Gabler
''Hedda Gabler'' () is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The world premiere was staged on 31 January 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. Ibsen himself was in attendance, although he remained back-stage. The play has been ca ...
, Gretchen in
Goethe's Faust
''Faust'' is a tragic play in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as '' Faust, Part One'' and ''Faust, Part Two''. Nearly all of Part One and the majority of Part Two are written in rhymed verse. Although rarely s ...
,
and
Lady Macbeth, in which role she gave "a most remarkably untraditional sleep-walking scene". The Modern Theatre Society ended in 1919, when the founders moved to the United States.
She had small roles in two films during her time in America: ''
The Devil Dancer'' (1927, now lost; a silent film directed by
Fred Niblo
Fred Niblo (born Frederick Liedtke; January 6, 1874 – November 11, 1948) was an American pioneer film actor, director and producer.
Biography
He was born Frederick Liedtke (several sources give "Frederico Nobile", apparently erroneously) in Yo ...
) and ''Wu Li Chang'' (1930, a Spanish-language production).
Personal life
Uraji Yamakawa was married to fellow Japanese actor
Sōjin Kamiyama; they lived in California while Sōjin was appearing in American films. After they separated, Yamakawa took bit parts, sold makeup, and cared for her adult son, Edward, who had
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
. During this period, she was friends with novelist
Toshiko Tamura
was the pen-name of an early modern feminist novelist in Shōwa period Japan. Her birth name was .
Biography
Tamura was born in the plebeian Asakusa district of Tokyo,Esashi, p.37 where her father was a rice broker. At the age of seventeen ...
.
[Anne E. Sokolsky]
''From New Woman Writer to Socialist: The Life and Selected Writings of Tamura Toshiko from 1936–1938''
(BRILL 2015): 20-21. However, during World War II she was relocated along with other Japanese-Americans, while her son was not sent together because of his illness (his subsequent fate is unknown). Yamakawa died in 1947, aged 62 years.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
1885 births
1947 deaths
Japanese actresses