Sadako Sawamura was a popular stage, film and television actress who lived an extraordinary life. My Asakusa is her poignant memoir. Born and raised in the now-extinct Shitamachi district of Asakusa, a neighborhood brimming with Kabuki theaters and geisha pleasure houses, Sadako Sawamura's rise to icon status is fascinating, including her account of serving a jail sentence for her pro-Communist sympathies. A remarkable woman and a remarkable true-life story. Sadako Sawamura died in 1996 at the age of 87.