During her career spanning 70 years,[2] she has worked with directors like Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse, appearing in films such as Tokyo Story, Sansho the Bailiff, The Bad Sleep Well, Mothra, and High and Low.

Kagawa was born in Asō (currently Namegata), Ibaraki Prefecture,[1] and graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Tenth High School for Girls in 1949.

[3] She was discovered in the "New Face Nomination" contest run by the Tokyo Shimbun in 1949[1] and gave her film debut the following year in Mado kara tobidase.

[2] A prolific actress, she collaborated with directors like Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Kinuyo Tanaka, Hiroshi Shimizu, Shiro Toyoda, Kozaburo Yoshimura, Ishiro Honda, Yuzo Kawashima, Hiroshi Inagaki and Hirokazu Koreeda.

[1] In 2011, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, honored her long career and contribution to Japanese cinema with an exhibition dedicated to her.