Kyôko Chigusa

Born in Nagoya in 1900. While studying the Toma style of Japanese dancing and nagauta music, she became a geisha who worked under the name of Kodama. In 1923, she joined the Nikkatsu Mukojima Studios, where she was selected to star as the heroine in Niku no Eiko, the film version of a popular novel of the period. After a dazzling debut performance, she began to attract attention to Chigusa as an actress suited to alluring female and evil women roles. After Tokyo was struck by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, Chigusa moved to Kyoto where, beginning with the first film to be made following Nikkatsu Mukojima's move there, Omitsu to Seizaburo, she appeared in a number of films, including Kanojo no Unmei (Her Destiny), Gendai no Joo (The Modern Queen) and Konjiki Yasha (The Golden She-Devil). Signing with Teikoku Cinema in 1924, she performed wonderfully in Eiga Joyu (The Film Actress), Yamato Sakura and Kiro ni Tachite (Standing at the Crossroads). Among all the commotion the following year, in which Teikoku Cinema was split into three, she joined the Kosaka team, after which her activities focused on period dramas. The main films she starred in at this time include the Kanto Kyokyakuden series, Kujaku no Hikari (a film which four studios competed to produce their own versions), Kurotegumi Sukeroku and Futeki no Meika. She showed her degree of acting skills across a broad spectrum, being renowned as a role-player of evil women, but also quite at home with heroine performances. In 1926, Asia Films, which had split from the Kosaka team, engaged in a merger. At this time, Chigusa teamed up with Akashi Rokuro in such films as Shinsara Yashiki and Date Sodo, as well as performing in the modern dramas Koi no Shigarami and Sannin no Haha. Between 1924 and 1930, Chigusa was popular enough to record over 100 film performances. In 1930, Chigusa left Teikoku Cinema after appearing in her final film there, Goso Michimoto. She then spent time moving around Ichikawa Productions, Asia Films and Akasawa Cinema until her retirement from the screen.