Occupation Actress, dancer Years active 1911–1919 | Spouse(s) Chimpei Takagi Name Tokuko Takagi | |
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Full Name Tokuko Nagai永井徳子 Died March 30, 1919, Kaho District, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan | ||
Tokuko Takagi (高木 徳子, Takagi Tokuko, born Tokuko Nagai (永井 徳子, Nagai Tokuko), February 15, 1891 – March 30, 1919) was a Japanese dancer and actress in early silent films. She was the first female Japanese performer to appear in a film professionally, appearing in four shorts for the American-based Thanhouser Company between the years 1911 and 1914. After returning to Japan, she was Japan's first dancer to dance in toe shoes.
History
Tokuko Takagi was born in Misakichō, Tokyo in 1891. In 1906, she married Chimpei Takagi, 24, when she was 15. They both moved to America where she eventually acted in four early silent films. She returned to Japan in 1914, due to the outbreak of World War I. In 1915, she had her Japanese domestic dance debut in the Imperial Theatre. While she was on tour in 1919, she suddenly died of a cerebral hemorrhage.