Yoshiko Kuga
Birthday: Born in 1931-01-21 in Ushigome, Tokyo, Japan
Deathday: 2024-06-09
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.
TV Credits
男たちの旅路
Character: Tatsuo's mother
The series depicts the employees of a security company from different generations and backgrounds facing many difficult questions. It features a guard who survived a suicide mission during the war and his conflicts, rebellion, empathy and reconciliation with the younger generation born after the war....
都の風
Character: 竹田静
The 37th NHK Asadora. A woman from Kyoto moves to Nara and runs a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) and then enters the fashion industry....
旅路
Character: 室伏はる子（伊東はる子）
The 7th NHK Asadora. Starring Tadashi Yokouchi in a narrative about an employee of the national railroad living through 50 years of modern history with his wife....
勝海舟
Character: Onobu (Kaishu's mother)
Katsu Kaishū deals with end of the Edo period. Based on Kan Shimozawa's novels "Katsu Kaishū "...
いのち
Character: Takahara Chie
The drama begins in August 1945, three days after the end of the Pacific war. A freight train completely jam-packed with passengers heads for Aomori from devastated Tokyo. On the train is Takahara Miki and her sister Sachi. Miki and Sachi are the daughters of a wealthy landlord living in a village in the Tsugaru area in Aomori prefecture, but they have been living in Tokyo since before the war to attend school. After seeing her village does not have a doctor, Miki is determined to become a rural...
長七郎江戸日記スペシャル 千姫有情 母ありき
Character:
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それぞれの秋
Character:
A drama that broke new ground with its realistic depiction of various problems within a very ordinary family....
Movie Credits
The Idiot
Character: Ayako
Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved in turn by Akama. When Akama realizes that he will never have Taeko, his thoughts turn to murder, and great tragedy ensues....
Drunken Angel
Character: Schoolgirl
Doctor Sanada treats gangster Matsunaga after he is wounded in a gunfight, and discovers that he is suffering from tuberculosis. Sanada tries to convince Matsunaga to stay for treatment, which would drastically change his lifestyle. They form an uneasy friendship until Matsunaga's old boss Okada returns from prison....
Equinox Flower
Character: Fumiko Mikami
Wataru Hirayama's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares that she is in love with a musician and is adamant to live life her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat....
Good Morning
Character: Setsuko Arita
A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives g...
Taira Clan Saga
Character: Tokiko
Special Forces commander Captain Tadamori returns to Kyoto after successfully defeating the uprising of pirates in the western sea of Japan. But because the high courtiers dislike career soldiers gaining power and influence, they ignore the will of ex-Emperor Toba and refuse to reward the captain. Reward recommender Lord Tokinobu is punished, and the captain sends his son Kiyomori to the Lord's residence, where he falls in love with Tokiko, the Lord's daughter. Meanwhile, Kiyomori finds out that...
The Woman in the Rumor
Character: Yukiko Mabuchi
Yukiko's fiance learns her mother runs a geisha house and ends their engagement. She despises what her mother does until one of her clients shows interest and starts to woo her....
Portrait of Madame Yuki
Character: Hamako Abe
A young woman takes up her new job as the servant of a noblewoman and soon discovers that underneath her facade of luxury lies great unhappiness....
Goryokaku
Character:
After the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, there was a series of battles fought while the former supporters of the Tokugawa shogunate retreated to the north where they actually started a sovereign nation that was recognized by more than one European country. Survivors of the Shinsengumi were among the followers of Enomoto Takeaki who took them to the northernmost island of Ezo where they fought their final battle at the star shaped fort, Goryokaku. The Japanese Civil Wars fought in the name of th...
Godzilla vs. Biollante
Character: Prime Minister's Wife
After the previous Godzilla attack, a miniature arms race ensues to collect his cells. Concerned over Godzilla's possible return, the Japanese government uses the cells to create a new bio-weapon, ANEB (Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria). They seeks the aid of geneticist Genshiro Shiragami, who's experiments result in a new mutation....
Cruel Story of Youth
Character: Yuki
A budding gangster enthralls a freeloading young woman, soon taking advantage of her knack for hitch-hiking to rob middle-class, middle-aged men....
Umineko ga tonde
Character:
...
Yagyu Secret Scrolls
Character: Yuhime
In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disaster for the clan. The information is divided among the three scrolls, all of which must be possessed for the secrets to be understood. When Princess Yuhime steals the scrolls, Tasaburo, a samurai with magical powers, and his brother Senshiro are sent to retrieve them....
Zero Focus
Character: Teiko Uhara
One week into newlywed Teiko Uhara's marriage, her husband, Kenichi, leaves on a short business trip and never returns. Teiko travels across Japan to search for him, and along the way discovers some surprising facts about her husband's past. With only a pair of old photographs among his belongings to go off of, Teiko tries to figure out what has happened to him....
Yagyu Secret Scrolls: Ninjitsu - Part II
Character: Yuhime
In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disaster for the clan. The information is divided among the three scrolls, all of which must be possessed for the secrets to be understood. When Princess Yuhime steals the scrolls, Tasaburo, a samurai with magical powers, and his brother Senshiro are sent to retrieve them. In Part II, the search for the scrolls continues....
Brother and Sister
Character: San
The eldest daughter of a rural family Mon returns home from Tokyo pregnant after an affair with a college student Kobata, which causes a scandal that will threaten the marriage prospects of the younger sister San, in her cash-strapped family. The ill-tempered eldest brother Inokichi decides to take on the role of disciplinarian, with harrowing results....
Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky
Character: Hiroko, Ryoichi's wife
This drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the city of Kawasaki, and their troubles and travails....
The Snow Flurry
Character: Sakura
After surviving the double suicide pact she made with her lover, a woman gives birth to their child....
Beautiful Days
Character:
Masaki Kobayashi directs this romantic drama concerning a family of florists....
Farewell to Dream
Character: Yôichi's older sister, Toyoko
A coming-of-age story portrayed as the loss of all youthful illusions. Sixteen-year-old Yoichi dreams of becoming a sailor. His parents are fishmongers, and Yoichi lives together with them and his four siblings in cramped living conditions. His beloved younger sister is given to a wealthy, childless uncle; his best friend moves away; the girl he fell in love with from afar is with someone else: little by little, Yoichi loses all the people that are important to him....
A Billionaire
Character: Sute Kagami
An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes....
The Eternal Rainbow
Character: Chie
Two men at an ironworks encounter roadblocks: the first does not have the grades to get a job, while the other finds himself falling for a co-worker....
The Garden of Women
Character: Akiko Hayashino
A student at a woman's university takes a controversial action against the school's old-fashioned doctrines....
Thus Another Day
Character: Yasuko Satô
A father curries favor with his bosses to further his career, but his wife has lost faith in him. She returns to her family home while they rent out their house during the summer to pay off their mortgage, and there she meets a lonely old man......
Spring Dreams
Character: Kazuko Yasugi
When a wealthy, selfish family decides to take care of an elderly hobo who collapsed near their home, they are beset by visits from his numerous friends....
I'll Not Forget the Song of Nagasaki
Character:
A Japanese soldier who died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Hawaii entrusted Henry Gray with an unfinished score and promised to complete it....
Daredevil in the Castle
Character: Kobue
During the raging war between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans, the swordsman Mohei (whose family has been completely decimated) is recruited by Toyotomi to overcome the seat of power, Osaka Castle. Mohei's daredevil skills will be put to severe tests....
Spring Awakens
Character: Kumiko Hirobe
Slice of life film centered on a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl....
Elegy of the North
Character: Reiko Hyodo
A sensitive young woman aged 22 fell in love with a middle aged man who was troubled by his unfaithful wife....
Samurai Banners
Character:
Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son. He pledges them his life. He then spends years using treachery, poetic sensibility, military and political strategy to expand Takeda's realm, advance the claim of Yu's s...
Four Love Stories
Character:
Omnibus of love stories from 1947 directed by famous directors, featuring big stars....
Love Letter
Character: Michiko Kubota
A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people....
An Inlet of Muddy Water
Character:
A Japanese woman writes down three stories she has witnessed or heard of in her diary, each about the difficult situation a young woman finds herself in....
Yellow Crow
Character: Yasuko Ashihara
In this Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign-Language Film, director Heinosuke Gosho -- a master chronicler of Japanese middle-class life -- presents the story of Kiyoshi Yoshida (Koji Shitara), who feels estranged from both parents after his father returns from war. How the boy adapts to life with the virtual stranger his father has become is the film's focus. Chikage Awashima, Yûnosuke Itô and Yoshiko Kuga also star....
Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree
Character: Reiko
...
Mune yori mune ni
Character: Harue Kawazoe
Japanese drama...
Tokyo Fair Weather
Character:
This is a biographical film about the late Yoko Araki, who was the wife of Japan's leading photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki....
119
Character:
In Harari-cho, a small and quiet bayside town by the sea, the firemen have not seen a fire for nearly twenty years. Each day passes eventlessly... until one day. The monotony of their daily lives is interrupted by the appearance of a beautiful female college student, Momoko, who comes to visit her aunt. After catching a glimpse of Momoko, both Tatsuya and Nobuyuki can't stop thinking about her. Since then, the small town is not so quiet anymore…...
As the River Flows
Character: Yuki Shiokawa
2000 live-action Japanese film....
Okoge
Character: Women's clothing store manager
A straight young woman living in Tokyo becomes involved in the lives of a gay man and his married lover....
The Paths of Two Maidens
Character:
Melodrama about two sisters with different mothers....
Guntō nanban-sen
Character:
1950 Japanese movie...
Nowhere Man
Character: Lady who walks
Sukezo, a former manga comic artist, takes up the art rock business by setting up a shop in a shed by the river. He tries hard to be successful, but business does not go well and the family becomes progressively poorer....
Till We Meet Again
Character: Keiko Ono
Saburo and Keiko fall in love with each other but the tide of war separates them....
The Angry Street
Character:
The Angry Street includes a great deal of location shooting in the rebuilt city, including downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, the campus of the University of Tokyo, and the high life of jazzy dance halls. Sudo (Hara Yasumi) and Mori (Uno Jukichi) are two university students who make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Over the course of the film, S...
Rinchi
Character: Kuwako
Japanese noir....
The Rose on His Arm
Character: Keiko Hase
Ignoring the protests of his working-class mother, a young man becomes wrapped up in the world of delinquents and yakuza....
Ballad of a Workman
Character: Chiyo
A demobilized soldier becomes a day laborer with a road construction gang, and his wife goes to work to bolster their income. Their modest dream is to see their son grow and to be happy as a family....
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Character: Michie Yoshiyama
A high-school girl acquires the ability to time travel....
Whirlwind
Character: Kikusato
Set at the end of the Siege of Osaka this film follows the exploits of several members of the defeated Toyotomi clan as they cope with the post battle chaos and the persecution of the Shogun's army. Five samurai decide on different fates when it becomes clear that their side is being destroyed. One wants to attack the enemy head on in a final honorable death. Another decides to commit hari-kiri but wants to find a glorious view to do it. His close friend, the "coward", just wants to run and gi...
Akireta musumetachi
Character:
Japanese comedy film....
Four Days of Snow and Blood
Character: Suzuko Watanabe
Based on the "2.26 Incident", an attempted coup d'état in Japan 1936, launched by radical ultra-nationalist parts of the military. Several leading politicians were killed and the center of Tokyo was briefly held by the insurgents before the coup was suppressed....
Beyond the Seasonal Wind
Character:
Japanese drama film....
Sky Cannot Be This Blue
Character: Fumi Kobayshi
Kantarou Kobayashi is an ordinary businessman who has multiple troubles on hand. He's been having an affair with a woman working in the same company, but she does lots of eccentric things. His wife has no interrest in anything but her plan to build a new apartment where their old house is. His son suffers skin eruptions. His mother appears to have senile dementia....
Woman Unveiled
Character:
Story of a family torn apart when Teiji (Mori), the father, develops intimate feelings for a runaway (Kuga) the family has taken into their home....
Delinquent Girl
Character:
A melodramatic love story, a would-be apprenticeship between the titular bad girl and the optimistic scholar returning from the big city. It is presumed to be a lost film....
This Way, That Way
Character:
An intellectual couple in a staid and tedious marriage are surprised when the wife’s niece, who has run away from home, turns up unexpectedly to stay with them. Their mundane lives are sent into disarray by the emotional and energetic Ako....
The Bitch
Character: Yukiko
The fall of an accountant enthralled by the sexual charms of a cabaret dancer....
Mother Country
Character:
In 1919, a group of Japanese immigrants arrives in Hawaii. Among them Yoshio Inoue and his wife Kishimo and Sumi, a young woman ready to get married soon. With the soil that is hard to work and the subtroipical climate, the immigrants have to cope with a hard life. But after years of hard work, Yoshio finds work as a teacher while his wife manages to open a small grocery store. But with the war around the corner, life becomes more and more complicated for the Japanese immigrants in a foreign cou...
Women in Prison
Character: Senko Minami, prisoner
The woman prison has a cast all with a story of their own and with no dull or routine day. There is an employee who is divorced after her husband had an affair. She loves the jailed criminals and almost sees them as family. One day at a workshop someone faints while working hard to make money because she has a poor boyfriend. Another inmate is knocked up Another is a mother and has her child with her....
A Case of Honor
Character:
The obstinate black market trader Okyo lives together with her son Seitaro, who works as a mechanic for a bus company. She also looks after her son's colleague, the bus driver Fujita. When he causes an accident one day, Seitaro testifies against him due to his moral scruples, thus getting his company into trouble....
Ai Sureba Koso
Character: Yumiko (segment 3)
...
Haitoku no mesu
Character: Nobuko Sato
...
Jakoman and Tetsu
Character: Girl at church
In a village subsisting on it herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one of the fish companies by the name of Tetsu, decides to overthrow Jakoman and his cohorts....
To Your Majesty, The Emperor 2
Character: Yaeno Kurumiya
Based on Muneta Hiroshi's military novel. The main character, Yamaguchi Zensuke, is a military dog soldier. He joins the army and winds up sent overseas to China as a part of the military dog unit. He's ridiculed by others due to his inability to advance....
Reunion
Character:
If two clouds go away, the eyes of a maiden who gets wet in tears, Tsukaman Aise who earnestly wished, and the two who cried under the harsh trials of ten years when they fell in love and fell in love, climbed the hill of memories again. Surprisingly, there was an event that turned a moment of joy into tears ......