The Season when the Town was Filled with the Voice of Silk Kinuyo Tanaka 1909-1977: From the Early Showa Period to the Golden Age of Postwar Japan

The Season when the Town was Filled with the Voice of Silk Kinuyo Tanaka 1909-1977: From the Early Showa Period to the Golden Age of Postwar Japan

Kinuyo Tanaka was a signature actress who lit up the Showa era screen for half a century. Her rounded and friendly appearance and her Yamaguchi dialect, which remained strong until the end of her career, were accepted as attractive, and she became such a national figure that titles of films bearing her name line the screen. fileciteturn3file1L25-L49 L79-L149

In the 1930s, she established her popularity as Shochiku's "Ugly Daughter" and solidified her star image as the film and song eras overlapped. She first played the role of "Izu no Odoriko," which was made into a number of films, and her role in the melodrama "Aizen Katsura," one of the most popular melodramas of the prewar period, combined with the unprecedented success of the theme song "Tabi no Yakaze" (Night Wind of Travel), created a craze. fileciteturn3file1L161-L177 L179-L206

Immediately after his defeat in the war, he was hit by a sudden shift in values and media criticism, and temporarily stagnated. However, he eventually recovered with Kenji Mizoguchi's "Saikaku Ichidai Onna" (Saikaku: A Woman of One Thousand Years), which he looked up to as a mentor. Since then, he has opened up new horizons with roles that delve into the shadows of aging and emotions of characters. fileciteturn3file1L210-L258 L260-L309

The first is "Aizen Katsura," a crystallization of prewar popular culture in which love stories and popular songs were combined, visualizing the circuit in which songs flowed through the streets and people gathered at movie theaters. fileciteturn3file1L179-L206 "Saiguru Ichidai Onna" is a masterpiece that depicts the fate of women and their independence in a large arc in her return to film. The film is a masterpiece that depicts a woman's destiny and independence in her return to the screen, and has elevated her performance from "dainty" to "awesome. fileciteturn3file1L237-L258 "Narayama Besshou", in which she plays an old woman who is abandoned in the mountains, imprints on the screen the weight of her body and her struggle with ethics. fileciteturn3file1L264-L283 Moreover, her first film as a director, "Koibun," was an event that brought a woman's perspective to a male-dominated scene by depicting the subtle psychology she had gleaned fro
m her experience as an actress. In addition, his first film, "Love Letter," was also an event that brought a woman's perspective to a male-dominated field. fileciteturn3file1L311-L346 and his early work "Izu no Odoriko" shows the starting point for his later maturity as an original landscape that combines pure emotion and travel sentiment. fileciteturn3file1L161-L177

Tanaka's characteristics stand out even more when compared to other actresses of the same era. For example, Mieko Takamine was called the "original lady actress," and her refined origins and demeanor helped her solidify her position as a leading actress in geisha roles with the success of Toho's "Tsuruhachi Tsurujiro. Tanaka's folkiness and "whiff of life" contrasts favorably with Takamine's elegance and stage presence. fileciteturn3file2L181-L192 L31-L61 Also, compared to the heroine image of Fujiko Yamamoto, who was known for her intelligent beauty in the postwar era, Tanaka showed an inclusiveness that took on the whole life of the Showa era with her range from daughter roles to elderly women and her earthy persuasion. fileciteturn4file1L135-L176

Supporting these stars was also the network of visualization that photographers and film magazines put up. Eiga Sekai's Hayata Studio photographed many stars from the prewar to the postwar period, capturing their fleeting glimpses in portraits. The image of Kinuyo Tanaka, a "national actress," was built up on top of the historical apparatus of photographs, magazines, and films. fileciteturn3file1L12-L13 fileciteturn3file3 L71-L119

In general, Kinuyo Tanaka traversed the emotional bandwidth of the Showa era, from prewar melodrama to postwar golden age human drama. From daughter to old woman, from performer to creator, the trajectory she followed while shifting the density of roles and eras overlaps with the heartbeat of Showa cinema itself. fileciteturn3file1L260-L346