Hiroko Matsuura Rosenthal
November 18, 1939 – November 5, 2018
Hiroko left this world in the late hours of November 5th after a long battle with pulmonary disease. She was well-known as a cosmetologist in Little Tokyo for three decades.
Born in Kanagawa to Shiro and Setsuko Matsuura in 1939, she survived the incendiary attacks on Tokyo. Postwar her father moved the family to his native district of rural Kumamoto Prefecture, where she attended local schools and then beauty college in Kumamoto City. She relocated to Tokyo and then, seeking a new life, to Los Angeles, where she met and in 1981 married Thomas Rosenthal. She became a cherished member of Tom’s family.
Her main delights in life were gardening and travel, going to Europe with her husband a number of times as well as trips to Japan where they travelled by Shinkansen to places as widely separated as Nagasaki and Aomori, visiting a number of less well known attractions like the Ritsurin Gardens in Takamatsu and the preserved samurai mansions in Kakunodate, Akita Prefecture. For a period she also was involved in breeding Akita dogs.
She is survived by husband Tom, sisters Ayako Kiyozumi and Teiko Matsuura, a niece and two nephews of Kumamoto City.
No formal services will be held. Her remains will be laid to rest with her husband’s family in Santa Barbara.