Takako Matsu - Background

Background

Takako Matsu was born into a traditional buyō house, which produced famous actor/actress like her father Matsumoto Kōshirō IX, kabuki actor and head of the buyō house; her uncle Nakamura Kichiemon II, Kabuki performer and actor; her elder brother Ichikawa Somegoro VII, Kabuki performer and actor; her sister, six years her elder Kio Matsumoto, stage director and actresses and her husband Kazuhisa Kawahara, actor. Her mother Noriko Fujima is a businesswoman. She married Yoshiyuki Sahashi, guitarist and record producer, and her maiden name is Takako Sahashi (佐橋 隆子, Sahashi Takako?) in 2007. She also has the name of Natori (the accredited master) of the Matsumoto school of Nippon Buyō (Japanese dancing); Shodai Matsumoto Kōka (初代 松本 幸華, Kōka Matsumoto the First?).

She selected her last name as "Matsu" to honor her family. In one interview, she notes that she and her two brothers are relatively close to her mother.

Her highest education is Asia University, but she quit the university.

She appears not only on Kabuki, Shinpa, or the musical starring her father Kōshirō Matsumoto, but on popular stage plays. She is given an important role from famous theatre directors, such as Yukio Ninagawa, Hideki Noda, Kazumi Kushida, and Koki Mitani, and is often selected as the leading role by them.