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Utagawa Yaeko was born in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture in 1903. Her real name was Fukagawa Masae. In 1918 she first trod the boards at the Kobe Jurakukan theater. It was while on tour that one day she saw the film Yuhi no Mura, direted by Henry Otani and it became her fervent desire to be a film actress.
In 1922, she joined Shochiku Kamata and appeared in No no Hana, starring Kawada Yoshiko, and Kuzushichi no Ie, starring Katsumi Yotaro. She went on to give an exemplary performance as the maid servant Otake in Ihin no Gunto. As her looks were very similar to those of Kurishima Sumiko, she was also invited by Teikoku Cinema to play opposite Matsumoto Taisuke and in the same year she transferred to Teikoku. After appearing in Morikundo Tetsuro no Tsuyu, she became greatly loved for her fresh yet somehow sorrowful beauty and became popular as the heroine of tragic dramas.
After appearing in Daitoden (Daitoden) and Kanojo no Unmei (Her Destiny), she performed opposite Matsumoto Taisuke in Shuchu Nikki (Diary of a Drunkard), and Nekketsu wo Hisomete, (Hide the Warm Blood). With roles like that of Omiya in Konjiki Yasha (The Golden She-Devil), she was lauded as "the Iwada Yukichi and Kurishima Sumiko of the East", and "the Matsumoto Taisuke and Utagawa Yaeko of the west". She performed in period dramas too, in the likes of Ooka Seidan (The New Ooka Cases) as the Ohana, the girl at the tea-shop, and in Kaigara Ippei, in the role of Nakayama Ogiko.
Of the productions she appeared in at Kanjuro Productions, she showed extraordinary charisma as an older woman, in Yamanaka Sadao's Koban Shigure (Shower of Coins) as Oyone of the local Tavern, and as Oko in Miyamoto Musashi. From Teikoku Cinema to Shinko Cinema, hers was a regal existence in the film world.
