Yukiko Todoroki ( ''Todoroki Yukiko''; September 11, 1917 – May 11, 1967) was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

. Her real name was Tsuruko Nishiyama. She participated in the

Takarazuka Revue The is a Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals and stories adapted from films, novels, manga, and Japane ...

. At Takarazuka, she was known not by her real name, but by the stage name Toruko (Turquoise or Turk). Her birthplace was Shinbori, Azabu-ku in Tokyo. Her two ex-husbands were film directors

Masahiro Makino was a Japanese film director. He directed more than 260 films, primarily in the chanbara and yakuza genres. His real name was , but he took the stage name Masahiro, the kanji for which he changed multiple times (including , , and ). Career Masa ...

and

Koji Shima was a Japanese film director, actor, and screenwriter. Career Born as Takehiko Kagoshima in Nagasaki, Shima left for Tokyo after graduating from high school. He was in the first class of the Nihon Eiga Haiyū Gakkō and joined the Nikkatsu stu ...

. Her son is Masayuki Makino, the principal of

Okinawa Actors School is a school in Ginowan, Okinawa which has another branch in Osaka. It was founded in 1983 by Masayuki Makino who became the first principal of the school. Notable alumni * Namie Amuro * Hitoe Arakaki * Rina Chinen * D&D * Da Pump * Folder 5 ...

Anna Makino is a J-pop singer, and an original member of the group Super Monkey's. She was born in Okinawa, Japan and is the granddaughter of film director Masahiro Makino. She made her debut as a solo J-pop singer on 22 January 1987, aged 15. Her first so ...

, a former member of idol group

Super Monkey's were a Japanese pop-singing and dancing group that spawned the careers of Namie Amuro and some members of the girl group MAX, the group was active between 1992 till 1995 and that disbanded on 1996. History Pre-debut The group was originall ...

, is her granddaughter.

History and personal life

In 1931, she left Kyoto Prefectural Suzaku Senior High School to join the

. Shidare Itoi and

Tomiko Hattori Tomiko (written: 富子, 都美子トミ子 or トミコ in katakana) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, wife of Ashikaga Yoshimasa and mother of Ashikaga Yoshihisa *, Japanese actress * Tomiko Lee, South ...

also joined the company at the same time. These Japanese beauties became very popular. In 1937, she left Takarazuka and had her debut as Otsu in the

Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...

production ''Musashi Miyamoto: Earth Scroll''. It is said this was revenge by the four existing film companies (

Shochiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all ...

, Nikkatsu, Shinko Cinema, and Daito Film) against

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

Kazuo Hasegawa was a Japanese film and stage actor. He appeared in over 300 films between 1927 and 1963. Career Born to a sake brewing family in Kyoto, he first appeared on stage at age five in a theater run by his family as a side business. In 1918, he beca ...

. While shooting ''Edo no Arawashi'' (1937), she met Nikkatsu director Masahiro Makino. She married him in 1940. The same year, her eldest son, Masayuki Makino, was born. In 1942, due to government intervention, Nikkatsu's production division was forced to merge with other companies to form

Daiei Studios Daiei Film Co. Ltd. (Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing ...

. However, Todoroki did not join Daiei; she moved to Toho, to which her husband Makino was then attached. In 1943, she gained popularity for portraying the heroine Sayo Murai in

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 ...

's debut film, '' Sanshiro Sugata''. That same year she had a hit with the theme song to ''Hanako-san'', ''Otsukai wa jitensha ni notte''. After the war, she divorced Makino (1950), married Koji Shima (1953), then divorced him (1965). In the post-war period, she gained weight and was gradually forced into supporting roles. For example, she played

Hideki Takahashi is a Japanese actor. Born in Kisarazu, Chiba near Tokyo, he attended Ichikawa Gakuen and later Nihon University. Career Takahashi made his debut with Nikkatsu and acted in youth-oriented films. Takahashi made film debut with ''Kōgenji'' directe ...

's mother in the television series ''Otoko no monshō'' from 1963 to 1966. On May 11, 1967, at 17:15, she died in Komae, Tokyo of post-hepatic jaundice. She was 49 years old.

Selected filmography

*1937 '' Musashi Miyamoto: Earth Scroll'' - directed by Jun Ozaki (尾崎純) *1939 ''

Kagirinaki zenshin is a film directed by Tomu Uchida that was released in 1937. It received the 1938 Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film. The protagonist, Tokumaru, is laid off from his corporate job. Unable to accept this, he convinces himself that he has actually ...

'' - directed by

Tomu Uchida , born Tsunejirō Uchida on 26 April 1898, was a Japanese film director. The stage name "Tomu" translates to “spit out dreams”. Early career Uchida started out at the Taikatsu studio in the early 1920s, but came to prominence at Nikkatsu, ada ...

*1939 '' Bakuon'' - directed by

Tomotaka Tasaka was a Japanese film director. Career Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, he began working at Nikkatsu's Kyoto studio in 1924 and eventually came to prominence for a series of realist, humanist films made at Nikkatsu's Tamagawa studio in the late 193 ...

*1940 '' Zoku Shimizu minato'' - directed by Masahiro Makino *1941 ''

Jiro monogatari Jiro is the registered name used by Sun Microsystems for an extension to Java and Jini. Jiro as an industry initiative, along with an EMC initiative called "Wide Sky" were catalysts in the late nineties for a common interface to storage devices, ...

'' - directed by Koji Shima *1943 ''

Hanako-san Hanako-san, or , is a Japanese urban legend about the spirit of a young girl named Hanako-san who haunts school toilets. Like many urban legends, the details of the origins of the legend vary depending on the account; different versions of the s ...

'' - directed by Masahiro Makino *1943 '' Sanshiro Sugata'' - directed by Akira Kurosawa *1943 ''

Sanshiro Sugata Part II is a 1945 Japanese action drama film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita, son of Tomita Tsunejirō, the earliest disciple of judo. It was filmed in early 1945 in Japan towards the end of World War II ...

'' - directed by Akira Kurosawa *1946 '' Nanatsu no kao'' - directed by

Sadatsugu Matsuda (まつださだつぐ) (2 November 1906 – 20 January 2003, Tokyo, Japan) was a Japanese film director. He directed films from 1925 to 1969. His name is also incorrectly spelled as Sadaji Matsuda. He was the son of producer and directo ...

, part of the

Bannai Tarao is the name of a set of Japanese mysteries (the first, , being made in 1946), featuring a detective of the same name who could take on seven different faces, in similar fashion to the protagonists of later series '' 7-Color Mask'', '' Rainbowman ...

series *1948 '' Kinji Kiyasha zengohen'' - directed by Masahiro Makino *1948 ''

Body at the Gate Body may refer to: In science * Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space * Body (biology), the physical material of an organism * Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of animal ...

'' - directed by Masahiro Makino *1950 '' Mada kara tobidase'' - directed by Koji Shima *1950 ''

Sasameyuki is a novel by Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki that was serialized from 1943 to 1948. It follows the lives of the wealthy Makioka family of Osaka from the autumn of 1936 to April 1941, focusing on the family's attempts to find a husband f ...

'' - directed by

Yutaka Abe was a Japanese film director and actor. He went to America along with a younger brother to visit an uncle living in Los Angeles. There he enrolled in an acting school, and upon hearing that Thomas H. Ince was looking for Japanese extras to work ...

*1951 ''

The Lady of Musashino is a 1951 Japanese drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It is based on the novel by Shōhei Ōoka. Plot Michiko Akiyama is married to Tadao Akiyama, a college professor but a vulgar man with a lower-class background. Towards the end of World W ...

'' - directed by

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 ...

*1953 ''

Life of a Woman is a 1953 Japanese drama film written and directed by Kaneto Shindo was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film producer, and writer, who directed 48 films and wrote scripts for 238. His best known films as a director include ''Childr ...

'' *1954 '' Kyokubatan no maou'' - directed by

Yasushi Sasaki (25 January 1908 – 13 September 1993), aka Kō Sasaki, was a Japanese film director. He directed films from the 1920s to the 1960s. Filmography Director He directed 182 films: * (1945) * (踊る龍宮城 ''Odoru ryū kyūjō'', literall ...

, part of the Bannai Tarao series *1955 '' Seishun kaidan'' - directed by

Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary ''Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won t ...

*1955 '' The Maid's Kid'' - directed by

*1956 '' Hungry Soul'' - directed by

*1956 '' Hungry Soul, Part II'' - directed by

*1956 '' Suzaki Paradise: Akashingō'' - directed by Yūzō Kawashima *1956 ''

A Slope in the Sun aka ''A Slope in the Sun'' is a 1958 black-and-white Japanese film drama directed by Tomotaka Tasaka.日活アクションの華麗な世界：1954-1971 第四章言語のユートピア-裕次郎の青春ドラマの意味 2「一緒にいる� ...

'' - directed by

*1958 ''

Akai hatoba Akai ( ja, 赤井, ) is a Hong Kong manufacturer of consumer electronics. It was founded as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946. Grande Holdings in Hong Kong purchased the Akai brand, and now distributes various electronic produc ...

'' - directed by Toshio Masuda *1959 ''

'' - directed by Koji Shima *1959 ''

Temptation on Glamour Island Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.Webb, J.R. (Sep 2014). Incorporating Spirituality into Psychology of temptation: Conceptualization, measurement, and clinical implications. Sp ...

'' - directed by Yuuzou Kawashima *1961 '' Aitsu to watashi'' - directed by

Kō Nakahira (1926-1978) was a Japanese film director. He joined Shochiku film company as an assistant director in 1949. In 1954, he moved to Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest m ...

Television

Sore wa watashi desu Sore may refer to: * Ulcer (dermatology), a sore on the skin or a mucous membrane * Sore, a mild pain or ache * ''Sore'' (album), by Buzzov*en * Sore (band), an Indonesian rock band * Sore, Landes, a village in the Landes département of France * ...

(NHK)

External links

IMDB entry for Yukiko TodorokiMovieWalker entry for Yukiko Todoroki
(Japanese)

(Japanese)

(Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Todoroki, Yukiko Japanese film actresses 1917 births 1967 deaths People from Komae, Tokyo People from Minato 20th-century Japanese actresses Takarazuka Revue

History and personal life

Selected filmography

Television

See also

External links