Uraji Yamakawa

Uraji Yamakawa (山川 浦路, Yamakawa Uraji, 15 November 1885 – 30 November 1947) was a Japanese actress, also credited as Ura Mita.

Uraji Yamakawa
山川 浦 路
Yamakawa in 1919
Born
Uraji Yamakawa / 山川 浦 路

(1885-11-15)15 November 1885
Japan
Died30 November 1947(1947-11-30) (aged 62)
Other namesUra Mita
OccupationActress
SpouseSōjin Kamiyama
Children1

Career
A poster from a 1916 production of Macbeth in Tokyo, featuring Uraji Yamakawa as Lady Macbeth

In 1912, she and her actor husband were co-founders of the Modern Theatre Society (Kindaigeki Kyokai) in Tokyo, formed to bring new Western works to Japanese audiences.[1][2] In 1914, Yamakawa was considered one of "the foremost interpreters of roles in Western translations" among Japanese actresses.[3][4] Among her notable roles were Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler,[5] Gretchen in Goethe's Faust,[3] and Lady Macbeth, in which role she gave "a most remarkably untraditional sleep-walking scene".[6] The Modern Theatre Society ended in 1919, when the founders moved to the United States.[1][7]

She had small roles in two films during her time in America: The Devil Dancer (1927, now lost; a silent film directed by Fred Niblo) and Wu Li Chang (1930, a Spanish-language production).[8]

Personal life

Uraji Yamakawa was married to fellow Japanese actor Sōjin Kamiyama; they lived in California while Sōjin was appearing in American films.[9] After they separated, Yamakawa took bit parts, sold makeup, and cared for her adult son, Edward, who had tuberculosis. During this period, she was friends with novelist Toshiko Tamura.[10] However, during World War II she was relocated along with other Japanese-Americans, while her son was not sent together because of his illness (his subsequent fate is unknown). Yamakawa died in 1947, aged 62 years.

References
  1. Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories (Penguin 2006): note 32. ISBN 9781101503096
  2. "Japanese Take up the Task of Westernizing Eastern Stage" Philadelphia Inquirer (June 29, 1913): 14. via Newspapers.comopen access
  3. Z. Kincaid, "Leading Actresses of Japan" The Theatre (July 1914): 31.
  4. Isma Dooly, "A Japanese Woman will Star in Drama" Atlanta Constitution (May 19, 1912): c11. via ProQuest
  5. Henrik Ibsen repertoire database, National Library of Norway.
  6. Eloise Roorbach, "Macbeth Acted in Japan" Theatre Magazine (October 1916): 290.
  7. "Japanese See Magda Presented in their Tongue" Honolulu Advertiser (March 21, 1919): 6. via Newspapers.comopen access
  8. The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1 (University of California Press 1997): 184. ISBN 9780520209695
  9. "Eminent Actors from Far Japan Now in U. S." Evening News (July 23, 1919): 3. via Newspapers.comopen access
  10. Anne E. Sokolsky, From New Woman Writer to Socialist: The Life and Selected Writings of Tamura Toshiko from 1936–1938 (BRILL 2015): 20-21. ISBN 9789004291072
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