Born as Masako Kobayashi in Matsushiro, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture as the fifth daughter and last of nine children of Tohta Kobayashi, she was adopted by the Hasegawa family in Ueda at the age of six and in 1900 graduated Ueda school.

"Katyusha's song", written by Shinpei Nakayama, which she sang in the film, became a huge hit selling over 20,000 copies at the time.

[2] After Shimamura died of the Spanish flu on November 5, 1918, she committed suicide by hanging on January 5, 1919.

The movie The Love of Sumako the Actress was produced in 1947 based on her life.

“Modern Girls, Shining Stars, the Skies of Tokyo – 5 Japanese women”, Phyllis Birnbaum, 1999