Personal Info
Birth date
1931-01-21 (94 Years)
Day of death
2024-06-09
Gender
Female
Known for
Acting
Place of birth
Ushigome, Tokyo, Japan
Also known as
Kuga Yoshiko
Ёсико Куга
یوشیکو کوگا
Yoshiko Kuga
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
Tabiji
NYR
Overview:
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.Miyako no kaze
NYR
Overview:
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.Katsu Kaishu
NYR
Overview:
Katsu Kaishū deals with end of the Edo period. Based on Kan Shimozawa's novels "Katsu Kaishū "Inochi
NYR
Overview:
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 doctor.Heroic Age
7.2
Overview:
When the Golden Race invited other races to join them in the stars, three sentient races answered their call. The Goldens called them the Bronze, Silver and Heroic Tribes. Just before the Gold Tribe left to travel to another Universe, a fourth race appeared, traveling to the stars on their own accomplishments. The Golds named the human race the Iron Tribe. During the passing of time, humanity suffers at the hands of the more dominant races and is now facing extinction. Following a prophecy left by the Gold Tribe, Princess Deianeira sets out to search for the powerful being who might be able to save humankind. She meets a wild haired boy on an abandoned planet—a fateful encounter that will not only change the fortunes of Humanity, but also the fate of the universe.The Roads Men Travel
8.2
Overview:
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.Pieces of Autumn
NYR
Overview:
A drama that broke new ground with its realistic depiction of various problems within a very ordinary family.Good Morning
7.717
Overview:
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 gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.The Woman in the Rumor
7.346
Overview:
After living a traumatic experience in Tokyo, Yukiko returns to Kyoto, where Hatsuko, her mother, runs a brothel, which upsets Yukiko very much.Godzilla vs. Biollante
7.4
Overview:
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.Drunken Angel
7.605
Overview:
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.The Idiot
7
Overview:
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.Equinox Flower
7.4
Overview:
Wataru Hirayama's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares that she is in love with a coworker 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.Cruel Story of Youth
6.602
Overview:
A budding gangster enthralls a freeloading young woman, soon taking advantage of her knack for hitch-hiking to rob middle-class, middle-aged men.Samurai Banners
7.625
Overview:
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 son as the heir, and prepare for an ultimate battle with the forces of Echigo. Has Kansuke overreached? Are his dreams, blinded by love, too big?Portrait of Madame Yuki
6.865
Overview:
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.Taira Clan Saga
7.125
Overview:
Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.Spring Awakens
6.8
Overview:
Slice of life film centered on a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl.The Angry Street
6.5
Overview:
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, Sudo becomes involved with three different girls and is drawn into the gangster milieu, which he seems unable to resist even though he is responsible for his mother, grandmother, and sister, Masako (Wakayama Setsuko). In this world of bad boys and girls, Masako is the pillar of strength and moral virtue who finally enables Mori to straighten out.Brother and Sister
6.6
Overview:
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.An Inlet of Muddy Water
6.1
Overview:
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.Yagyu Secret Scrolls
7
Overview:
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.The Garden of Women
6.6
Overview:
A student at a woman's university takes a controversial action against the school's old-fashioned doctrines.Farewell to Dream
6.9
Overview:
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
5.7
Overview:
An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.Spring Dreams
5.8
Overview:
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.Acting
2000As the River Flows as Yuki Shiokawa
1997The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as Michie Yoshiyama
1997Tokyo Fair Weather as Unknown
1994119 as Unknown
1993Sky Cannot Be This Blue as Fumi Kobayshi
1992Okoge as Women's clothing store manager
1991Nowhere Man as Lady who walks
1989Godzilla vs. Biollante as Prime Minister's Wife
1989Four Days of Snow and Blood as Suzuko Watanabe
1988Goryokaku as Unknown
1988長七郎江戸日記スペシャル 千姫有情 母ありき (1 Episode) as Unknown
1986Miyako no kaze (150 Episodes) as 竹田静
1986Inochi (50 Episodes) as Takahara Chie
1976The Roads Men Travel (3 Episodes) as Tatsuo's mother
1974Katsu Kaishu (52 Episodes) as Onobu (Kaishu's mother)
1973Pieces of Autumn (15 Episodes) as Unknown
1969Samurai Banners as Unknown
1967Tabiji (309 Episodes) as 室伏はる子（伊東はる子）
1964Whirlwind as Kikusato
1964To Your Majesty, The Emperor 2 as Yaeno Kurumiya
1962Umineko ga tonde as Unknown
1962Ballad of a Workman as Chiyo
1962Mother Country as Unknown
1961Haitoku no mesu as Nobuko Sato
1961Moonlight in the Rain as Unknown
1961Zero Focus as Teiko Uhara
1961Hijō no otoko as Unknown
1961Daredevil in the Castle as Kobue
1960Cruel Story of Youth as Yuki
1960Spring Dreams as Kazuko Yasugi
1959Thus Another Day as Yasuko Satô
1959Good Morning as Setsuko Arita
1959The Snow Flurry as Sakura
1958The Eternal Rainbow as Chie
1958Equinox Flower as Fumiko Mikami
1958Beyond the Seasonal Wind as Unknown
1958Woman Unveiled as Unknown
1958Yagyu Secret Scrolls: Ninjitsu - Part II as Yuhime
1957Elegy of the North as Reiko Hyodo
1957Yagyu Secret Scrolls as Yuhime
1957Yellow Crow as Yasuko Ashihara
1957A Case of Honor as Unknown
1956The Rose on His Arm as Keiko Hase
1956Women in Prison as Senko Minami, prisoner
1956Farewell to Dream as Yôichi's older sister, Toyoko
1955Mune yori mune ni as Harue Kawazoe
1955Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree as Reiko
1955Taira Clan Saga as Tokiko
1955Ai Sureba Koso as Yumiko (segment 3)
1955Beautiful Days as Unknown
1954Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky as Hiroko, Ryoichi's wife
1954A Billionaire as Sute Kagami
1954The Woman in the Rumor as Yukiko Mabuchi
1954The Garden of Women as Akiko Hayashino
1953Love Letter as Michiko Kubota
1953An Inlet of Muddy Water as Unknown
1953Brother and Sister as San
1953Reunion as Unknown
1952This Way, That Way as Unknown
1952The Paths of Two Maidens as Unknown
1952I'll Not Forget the Song of Nagasaki as Unknown
1951Honoo no hada as Unknown
1951The Bitch as Yukiko
1951The Idiot as Ayako
1950Oogonju as Kozue Takenaka
1950Portrait of Madame Yuki as Hamako Abe
1950Guntō nanban-sen as Unknown
1950The Angry Street as Unknown
1950Till We Meet Again as Keiko Ono
1949Rinchi as Kuwako
1949Akireta musumetachi as Unknown
1949Jakoman and Tetsu as Girl at church
1949Delinquent Girl as Unknown
1948Drunken Angel as Schoolgirl
1947Spring Awakens as Kumiko Hirobe
1947Four Love Stories as Unknown
Visual Effects
2007Heroic Age (26 Episodes) ... Mechanical Designer