This is Hisako Ichijou. She was just 14 when she debuted in 1918 and she quickly became a star of the Asakusa Opera and a favourite of their most enthusiastic fans known as "Perarogo". Tragically, however, her career was a short one: she contracted lead poisoning from the white face paint she used during performances and died in 1920 having just turned 17:
Yukiko Tsukuba was born in 1906 and was a major silent film star. She first appeared in Shimbashi's geisha district but was quickly spotted by a board member of the Imperial Theatre who recommended her to Shiro Kido, president of Shochiku. She became an actress with them at the age of 16. She left Shochiku after having an affair with co-star Tsuzuya Moroguchi but the couple's attempt to set up their own production company failed and she returned. Her private life was always eventful: She was arrested along with other actors and actresses in 1934 when police raided illegal mah-jong clubs in Shinjuku and Shinagawa and this forced her to leave Shochiku once more. The following year, a man called Ushijima tried to blackmail Matsuya department store by threatening to release nude pictures of Tsukuba but he was arrested by police. It transpired that he had lived with Tsukuba for around 5 years so she was also called in for questioning on suspicion of conspiring with him. She subsequently moved to Kyoto where she made her first talkie but left the film world in 1936 to become a geisha in Osaka and, reputedly, a heavy drinker. She married a wealthy industrialist and kept out of the limelight until her death in 1977:
Aiko Takashima's father was a well-known artist and she established a reputation for herself as an active performer on the screen after joining the film world. She was a little eccentric: on one occasion she put hot braziers in a chest of drawers to keep her things warm during winter. She then left the house and returned to find it completely burned down. She disappeared from the stage as the Showa era began and is thought to have been killed during a Tokyo air raid in 1945:
