Yoshiko Kuga
Born: 1931-01-21 in Ushigome, Japon
Died: 2024-06-09
Known For: Acting
Biography
Yoshiko Kuga (久我 美子, Kuga Yoshiko, 21 January 1931 – 9 June 2024) was a Japanese actress. Kuga was born in Tokyo, Japan. In 1946, while still attending Gakushuin Junior High School, she became an actress for Toho studios. In 1947, she made her debut as one of the lead actresses in the omnibus movie Four Love Stories (四つの恋の物語, Yottsu no Koi no Monogatari). In the 1950s, she started working independently and starred in many productions of the Shochiku studios under the direction of Keisuke Kinoshita. Other important directors include Kenji Mizoguchi (The Woman in the Rumor), Yasujirō Ozu (Equinox Flower), and Tadashi Imai (An Inlet of Muddy Water). Since the 1970s, she appeared mainly on television and on stage. Kuga was married to actor Akihiko Hirata from 1961 until his death in 1984. She died from aspiration pneumonia on 9 June 2024, at the age of 93.
Filmography
2007
- Heroic Age ... (Mechanical Designer)
2000
- As the River Flows as Yuki Shiokawa
1997
- Tokyo Fair Weather
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as Michie Yoshiyama
1994
1993
- Sky Cannot Be This Blue as Fumi Kobayshi
1992
- Okoge as Women's clothing store manager
1991
- Nowhere Man as Lady who walks
1989
- Godzilla vs. Biollante as Prime Minister's Wife
- Four Days of Snow and Blood as Suzuko Watanabe
1986
- Miyako no kaze as 竹田静
- Inochi as Takahara Chie
1976
- The Roads Men Travel as Tatsuo's mother
1974
- Katsu Kaishu as Onobu (Kaishu's mother)
1973
1969
- Samurai Banners
- Through Days and Months as Matsuko's Mother
1967
- Tabiji as 室伏はる子（伊東はる子）
1965
- Ane to imôto as Yoshie Matsumoto
1964
- Whirlwind as Kikusato
- To Your Majesty, The Emperor 2 as Yaeno Kurumiya
1962
1961
- Daredevil in the Castle as Kobue
- Haitoku no mesu as Nobuko Sato
- Hijō no otoko
- Zero Focus as Teiko Uhara
- Moonlight in the Rain
1960
- Cruel Story of Youth as Yuki
- Spring Dreams as Kazuko Yasugi
1959
- Good Morning as Setsuko Arita
- The Snow Flurry as Sakura
- Thus Another Day as Yasuko Satô
1958
- Equinox Flower as Fumiko Mikami
- The Eternal Rainbow as Chie
- Yagyu Secret Scrolls: Ninjitsu - Part II as Yuhime
- Woman Unveiled
- Beyond the Seasonal Wind
1957
- Yagyu Secret Scrolls as Yuhime
- A Case of Honor
- Elegy of the North as Reiko Hyodo
- Yellow Crow as Yasuko Ashihara
1956
- Women in Prison as Senko Minami, prisoner
- The Rose on His Arm as Keiko Hase
- Farewell to Dream as Yôichi's older sister, Toyoko
1955
- Taira Clan Saga as Tokiko
- If Indeed One Loves as Yumiko (segment 3)
- Mune yori mune ni as Harue Kawazoe
- Tomorrow's Happiness as Tomiko
- Beautiful Days as Sakurako
- Bride in the Kitchen
- Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree as Reiko
1954
- Shinzōyaburi no oka
- The Garden of Women as Akiko Hayashino
- Brotherly Love
- The Woman in the Rumor as Yukiko Mabuchi
- A Billionaire as Sute Kagami
- Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky as Hiroko, Ryoichi's wife
- The Pleasures of Vice as Yasuyo Uematsu
- Autumn Interlude as Setsuko Fushimi
1953
- Love Letter as Michiko Kubota
- Yōsei wa hana no nioi gasuru
- To the Ends of the Earth
- An Inlet of Muddy Water
- Brother and Sister as San
- Reunion
1952
1951
- The Idiot as Ayako
- Dorei no machi
- Enoshima Elegy
- Kyūjō hiroba
- Honoo no hada
- The Bitch as Yukiko
1950
- Portrait of Madame Yuki as Hamako Abe
- Till We Meet Again as Keiko Ono
- Escape Between Midnight and Dawn
- The Angry Street
- Tsuki no shussen as 荻原静江
- Golden Beast as Kozue Takenaka
- Guntō nanban-sen
1949
- Hakuchō wa kanashikarazuya
- Rinchi as Kuwako
- Jakoman and Tetsu as Girl at church
- Delinquent Girl
- Akireta musumetachi
1948
- Drunken Angel as Schoolgirl
- My Love on the Other Side of the Mountain as Shizu
1947
- Four Love Stories
- Spring Awakens as Kumiko Hirobe