Career
Notable highlights of her career were an appearance in Akira Kurosawa"s Stray Dog, and a role as Kimiko in The Bridges at Toko-Ri, in which she appeared alongside William Holden and Mickey Rooney. Her first husband was Filipino musician and actor Rodrigo "Bimbo" Danao. They had two children together.
Their eldest is actor Etsuo Shima.
Their eldest son, Akihiro, died in a car crash in 1990. On 16 June 2010, Kichinosuke committed suicide by jumping off her apartment in Shinjuku.
She died of esophageal cancer in Tokyo on 11 January 2014, aged 80.