Michiko Oikawa

Biography

Dead at the age of twenty six does not allow for much of a career or legacy, but that was the promise of Michiko Oikawa who so early in life had already begun to impress and earn the title of 'the eternal virgin,' a description which years later would also be assigned to Setsuko Hara. Born in Tokyo, Japan to Christian parents she would go on to profess the same faith as she began acting in theatre and graduating from the Tokyo Music School. She would commence work under contract at Shochiku Studio in 1929, but as early as 1930 would have to take a break of one year due to a worsening heart problem. Similarly, she would have to take time off in 1934 only to return in 1935. Following her return she did appear in new films, but was soon ill again culminating in her death due to tuberculosis in 1938. Her earlier boyfriend, the novelist On Watanabe, had also died following an accident at age thirty in 1930.