| Uraji Yamakawa | |
| Native Name: | 山川 浦 路 |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Birth Name: | Uraji Yamakawa / Japanese: 山川 浦 路 |
| Birth Date: | 15 November 1885 |
| Birth Place: | Japan |
| Alias: | Ura Mita |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Spouse: | Sōjin Kamiyama |
| Children: | 1 |
was a Japanese actress, also credited as Ura Mita.
In 1912, she and her actor husband were co-founders of the Modern Theatre Society (Kindaigeki Kyokai) in Tokyo, formed to bring new Western works to Japanese audiences.[1] [2] In 1914, Yamakawa was considered one of "the foremost interpreters of roles in Western translations" among Japanese actresses.[3] [4] Among her notable roles were Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler,[5] Gretchen in Goethe's Faust, and Lady Macbeth, in which role she gave "a most remarkably untraditional sleep-walking scene".[6] The Modern Theatre Society ended in 1919, when the founders moved to the United States.[7]
She had small roles in two films during her time in America: The Devil Dancer (1927, now lost; a silent film directed by Fred Niblo) and Wu Li Chang (1930, a Spanish-language production).[8]
Uraji Yamakawa was married to fellow Japanese actor Sōjin Kamiyama; they lived in California while Sōjin was appearing in American films.[9] After they separated, Yamakawa took bit parts, sold makeup, and cared for her adult son, Edward, who had tuberculosis. During this period, she was friends with novelist Toshiko Tamura.[10] However, during World War II she was relocated along with other Japanese-Americans, while her son was not sent together because of his illness (his subsequent fate is unknown). Yamakawa died in 1947, aged 62 years.