Tsuru Aoki
Tsuru Aoki, born Tsuruko Aoki in Tokyo, Japan, on September 9, 1892, was a notable actress in both the Japanese theater and American cinema during the 1910s and early 1920s. She immigrated to the United States at the age of eleven and eventually settled in Los Angeles, where she began her stage career in Japanese-language theater before transitioning to silent films. Aoki gained prominence as a pioneering Asian actress, often appearing alongside her husband, Sessue Hayakawa, who became a popular matinee idol of the era. Throughout her career, Aoki starred in approximately forty films, including notable titles like "The Dragon Painter" and "Black Roses," and was recognized for her grace and dignity in roles that often reflected the stereotypes held by Western audiences. Despite not achieving the same level of fame as her husband, Aoki was one of the first Asian-born actresses to gain significant recognition in American cinema. Her legacy includes being a role model for future Asian American actresses, paving the way for performers like Anna May Wong. Tsuru Aoki passed away in Japan on October 18, 1961.
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Subject Terms
Tsuru Aoki
Japanese-born actress
- Born: September 9, 1892
- Place of Birth: Tokyo, Japan
- Died: October 18, 1961
- Place of Death: Tokyo, Japan
Tsuru Aoki, a native of Japan, was a movie star during the 1910s and early 1920s, and she also acted in the Japanese theater in Los Angeles. The wife of actor Sessue Hayakawa, she was a pioneering Asian actress in American cinema.
Birth name: Tsuruko Aoki
Areas of achievement: Acting, film, theater
Early Life
Tsuru Aoki was born Tsuruko Aoki in Tokyo, Japan, on September 9, 1892. In 1903, when she was eleven years old, Tsuru immigrated to the United States with her aunt and uncle, who owned the Imperial Theatre of Japan. They settled in Los Angeles, but she was later adopted by her wealthy uncle, the artist Hyosai Aoki, a resident of San Francisco. Aoki lived with her uncle for several years.
Life’s Work
Returning to Los Angeles, Aoki commenced her stage career in the Japanese-language theater and also began appearing in silent movies after being discovered by the famous producer and studio manager Thomas Ince. Her first movie was The Oath of Tsuru San (1913). She performed onstage with fellow Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa (born Kintaro Hayakawa) about the same year, and the two were married in May 1914. The couple adopted three children.
Aoki introduced her husband to Ince, enabling him to get his first film role in 1914. In The Wrath of the Gods (1914), he supported Aoki in her lead role, playing her character’s father. Before too long, he would come to outshine his wife, starting in the Cecil B. DeMille melodrama The Cheat (1915). Hayakawa became a popular matinee idol from the mid-1910s to the early 1920s. He continued to appear in American films sporadically through the early 1930s.
Although she had her own series for the Ince Kay Bee Studio, Aoki and Hayakawa appeared together in about twenty films until 1923. Their pictures together included Alien Souls (1916), The Soul of Kura-San (1916), His Birthright (1918), The Dragon Painter (1919), and Black Roses (1921). In film credits, Aoki’s first name was sometimes rendered as Tsura, Tsuri, or Tsuro. Besides her roles in American cinema, Aoki made at least one film in Japan, and she and her husband appeared together in a French silent film in 1923. Many of her films were not feature-length, being composed of two or three reels. After having appeared in about forty motion pictures by the mid-1920s, including many with prominent characters, Aoki’s career began to wind down.
Aoki’s final silent film, The Danger Line, was released in 1924, after which she retired to spend time with their children. Among her other films, nearly all of which were melodramas, were A Relic of Old Japan (1914), A Tokyo Siren (1920), The Breath of the Gods (1920), The Great Prince Shan (1924), A Tragedy of the Orient (1924), and San Yan’s Devotion (1924). The sole talking motion picture of her career was From Hell to Eternity (1960). Aoki played a supporting role in the film, which starred Hayakawa. Hayakawa’s American career had seen a rebirth in the late 1950s with The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Aoki died in Japan on October 18, 1961.
Significance
Tsuru Aoki was one of the first Asian-born actresses to receive top billing as a star in American studio-produced films. Although she was not a conventionally beautiful woman, she had delicate features and performed with grace. Having made her cinema debut earlier than her husband, she was, for a brief period, the best-known Asian-born cinema actor in the United States. Aoki and Hayakawa were the country’s first Asian acting team and certainly one of the most successful. Although the scenarios in most of her films portrayed her character in the stereotypical way in which many Westerners regarded Asians, Aoki always played those roles with dignity. In that respect, she was a role model for those Asian American actresses who immediately followed her, including Los Angeles-born Anna May Wong.
Bibliography
Miyao, Daisuke. Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom. Durham: Duke UP, 2007. Print.
Ross, Sara. “The Americanization of Tsuru Aoki: Orientalism, Melodrama, Star Image, and the New Woman.” Camera Obscura 60 20.3 (2005):129-158. Print.
Russell, Catherine, ed. New Women of the Silent Screen: China, Japan, Hollywood. Durham: Duke UP, 2006. Print.
"Tsuru Aoki." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0031834. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.
"Tsuru Aoki: Sketch of an Artist." San Francisco Silent Film Festival, 2023, silentfilm.org/tsuru-aoki-sketch-of-an-artist. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.