was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific in the United States during the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top billing in American motion pictures.
Life and career Born in Tokyo, Aoki came to California in 1899 with her uncle, Otojirō Kawakami, his geisha wife, Kawakami Sadayakko, and Otojirō's troupe of actors. At their first stop in San Francisco, Tsuru performed with the troupe and assisted Sadayakko at a Palace Hotel tea ceremony where attendees raved over her "diminutive daintiness." But when the troupe ran into severe financial difficulties, Otojirō made arrangements to have Tsuru adopted by Toshio Aoki, a sketch artist for a local newspaper.Joseph L. Anderson, Enter a Samurai: Kawakami Otojirō and Japanese Theatre in the West, 2 v. (Tucson: Wheatmark, 2011), 1: 65, 88. According to Anderson, Aoki was an old friend of an American missionary couple the Kawakamis had met aboard ship, Merriman Colbert Harris and Flora Best Harris (89). Tsuru Aoki started taking lessons in ballet dance in New York City, when she went along with her uncle Toshio, who was hired by David Belasco for The Darling of the Gods. After Toshio's death a reporter looked after Aoki. Aoki began her acting career after returning to Los Angeles and performing in stage productions in the city's Japanese Theatre where she was noticed by film producer Thomas Ince who placed the young actress under contract. She was also responsible for recruiting Japanese actors for Imperial Japanese Company, a subsidiary of New York Motion Picture Corporation.
Aoki came to be one of the earliest professional Japanese film actresses within the film industry. She made her film debut in the Majestic Film Company release The Oath of Tsuru San in 1913 opposite actor William Garwood. Her follow-up film was the 1914 Ince production, O Mimi San, which starred the American child actress Mildred Harris and a young Sessue Hayakawa, with whom Aoki had acted onstage at the Japanese Theatre the previous year. The couple began a romantic relationship that culminated in their marriage on May 1, 1914, weeks before the release of their critically acclaimed and publicly successful film The Wrath of the Gods – a melodrama about an interracial romance between a man portrayed by Caucasian actor/ director Frank Borzage and an Asian woman portrayed by Aoki. The film also starred Sessue Hayakawa and featured actress Gladys Brockwell. Hayakawa and Aoki eventually made more than 20 films together throughout the 1910s and 1920s. One of Aoki's most recalled films of the silent period is the 1919 William Worthington-directed The Dragon Painter, based on the novel of the same title by Sidney McCall, in which Aoki starred as a young woman who convinces an isolated, mentally deranged artist named Tatsu (portrayed by Hayakawa) to come down from the mountains so that she may civilize him and he may further his artistic abilities. Other notable films of the period were The Typhoon (1914), The Vigil (1914), The Geisha (1914), The Chinatown Mystery (1915), His Birthright (1918), and The Breath of the Gods (1920).
Throughout the 1910s, Aoki appeared in approximately 40 films, often in leading-lady roles which was a first for an Asian actress. Some of her co-stars of the era included such notable names as Marin Sais, Frank Borzage, Gladys Brockwell, Mildred Harris, Jack Holt, Jane Wolfe, Dagmar Godowsky, Vola Vale, Florence Vidor, Earle Foxe, and Walter Long. After a series of moderately successful Ince-produced two-reel serials, Aoki's career in the United States began to falter (while her husband's career began to build momentum), and the couple travelled to France in 1923 and filmed the popular -directed drama La Bataille. After returning to America, however, Aoki made only three more films before retiring from the screen to raise her and Hayakawa's three children. Her last silent screen performance was the 1924 release The Danger Line. Aoki returned to the screen in 1960 (her first sound film) to appear with her husband in the drama Hell to Eternity.
Death Tsuru Aoki died in Tokyo, Japan, on October 18, 1961, of acute peritonitis at the age of 69.
Filmography TitleYearRoleNotes The Oath of Tsuru San 1913 Tsuru San Short Lost film O Mimi San 1914 O Mimi San The Courtship of O San O San Short Lost film The Geisha MyoLove's Sacrifice Little Faun Lost film The Wrath of the Gods Toya San A Tragedy of the Orient Kissmoia Short Lost film A Relic of Old Japan Katuma Desert Thieves Owanono Star of the North Star of the North The Curse of Caste Kissmoia The Village 'Neath the SeaLittle Fawn The Death Mask Princess Nona ShortThe Typhoon N/A Nipped San Toy Nakado Short Lost filmThe Vigil Mira Mother of the Shadows Laughing Moon The Last of the Line Girl at Riverside ShortThe Famine 1915 Misao Short Lost filmThe Chinatown Mystery Woo The Beckoning Flame Janira Alien Souls 1916 Yuri Chan Lost film The Honorable Friend Toki-Ye The Soul of Kura San Kura-San Each to His Kind 1917 Princess Nada The Call of the East O'Mitsu – Arai's Sister The Curse of Iku 1918 Omi San The Bravest Way Sat-u His Birthright Saki San Incomplete filmA Heart in Pawn 1919 Sada Lost filmThe Courageous Coward Rei Oaki The Gray Horizon O Haru San The Dragon Painter Ume-Ko Bonds of HonorToku-ko Lost filmLocked Lips 1920 Lotus Blossom A Tokyo Siren Asuti Hishuri The Breath of the Gods Yuki Onda Screen Snapshots 1920–1921 Herself Black Roses 1921 Blossom Lost filmFive Days to Live 1922 Ko Ai Lost filmNight Life in Hollywood Herself Incomplete filmThe Battle 1923 La Marquise Yorisaka Lost filmThe Danger Line 1924 Marquise Yorisaka The Great Prince Shan Nita Sen Yan's Devotion Sen Yan's Wife Hell to Eternity 1960 Mother Une Decasia 2002 Geisha Archive footage
Bibliography The Americanization of Tsuru Aoki: Orientalism, Melodrama, Star Image, and the New Woman by Sara Ross. Duke University Press, 2005. Camera Obscura 20 (3 60):129-157; .
References
Further reading
External links
Tsuru Aoki at Women Film Pioneers Project Silent Era People New York Times movies