Yukiko Tsukuba

June 10, 1906 – June 8, 1977

Tokyo, Japan

Yukiko Tsukuba (June 10, 1906 – June 8, 1977) was a Japanese actress on stage, in silent films, and in early sound films. She was also the All-Japan women's billiards champion in 1929. Tsukuba was born in Tokyo. She trained as a geisha, and became an internationally publicized beauty and film star while she was still in her teens. Tsukuba began her screen career at the Shochiku studio, working with directors including Yasujiro Shimazu, Hiroshi Shimizu, Yoshinobu Ikeda, Heinosuke Gosho, Kiyohiko Ushihara, Buntaro Futagawa, Torajiro Saito, and Mikio Naruse. She was dubbed "the Mary Pickford of Japan" in a 1926 American newspaper. With actor Tsuzuya Moroguchi, Tsukuba started a short-lived production company, in 1927. Tsukuba married businessman and politician Jinkichi Terada [ja] in 1942. Her husband died in 1976, and she died in 1977, from stomach cancer, at the age of 70, in Setagaya.