Kinuyo Tanaka

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Kinuyo Tanaka in Jinsei no onimotsu (1935)

Screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda, Actress-Director Kinuyo Tanaka, and Director Kenji Mizoguchi visit Paris, 1953

Kinuyo Tanaka (田中絹代 Tanaka Kinuyo, 28 November 1910 - 21 March 1977) was a Japanese actress and director.

Tanaka was born in Shimonoseki city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. She became a leading actress at an early age, appearing in Yasujiro Ozu's I Graduated, But... in 1929. In 1930 she played the lead in Aiyoku no ki and in 1931 she appeared in Japan's first talkie, The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (1931), directed by Heinosuke Gosho.

She had a close working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi, having parts in 15 of his films, including leading roles in The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954). She also played Noboru Yasumoto's mother in Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (1965).

Tanaka was the first Japanese woman who worked as a film director. Her first directing job was on the film Love Letter in 1953.

[edit] External links

• Choreography of desire: analysing Kinuyo Tanaka's acting in Mizoguchi's films by Chika Kinoshita
• Kinuyo Tanaka at the Internet Movie Database
• Kinuyo Tanaka's JMDb Listing (in Japanese)

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