Daughter of an actor and a geisha, she was trained as a musician on the three-stringed traditional Japanese shamisen. Her acting career began at the age of fourteen. She joined the Nikkatsu studio in Kyoto in 1930, because her mother was a friend of the chief executive. International fame came through her roles in several films by Akira Kurosawa, notably her Lady Macbeth-like character Asaji in 'Throne of Blood' (1957).