Isuzu Yamada - The Stage and Silver Screen Flower that Stood Through the Showa Era

Isuzu Yamada - The Stage and Silver Screen Flower that Stood Through the Showa Era

Isuzu Yamada (1917-2012), the daughter of a Shinpa actor father and geisha mother, was trained in the performing arts from an early age. After joining Nikkatsu at the age of 13, she was quickly chosen to play opposite Chiezo Kataoka and Kanjuro Arashi, and graced the silver screen in period dramas. Her neat yet mild-mannered face, large eyes, and cool expression had a far-reaching glamour on stage, qualities that enabled her to play a wide range of roles from girlish loveliness to bewitching female roles. Before the war, in "Naniwa Kaika" and "Gion no Sisters," she embodied the image of a strong woman at the mercy of love, giving a masterful performance that reflected the times.

In "Tsuruhachi Tsurujiro," she played the sorrows of a geisha and showed her one-of-a-kind presence as a geisha while the postwar film industry was torn between entertainment and social concerns. From the 1960s onward, she shifted her focus to the stage and breathed new life into the role of the geisha in "Tanuki" and other plays. Her acting skillfully interweaves realism and theatrical exaggeration, deeply shaking the audience.

Her contemporary Setsuko Hara, with her chaste, Western doll-like beauty, was mythologized by her retirement and silence. Takamine Hideko transformed from loveliness into a famous actress with the intelligence of a commoner, and gained national popularity with such films as "Twenty-Four Eyes. In contrast, Isuzu Yamada excelled in roles rooted in a sense of everyday life, such as geisha and geishas, and her unique brilliance shone through in her portrayal of the sorrow and toughness of the common people.

Her representative works include "Naniwa Kaika," "Sisters of Gion," "Tsuruhachi Tsurujiro," and "Tanuki," and she was present in both Japanese films and theater from the prewar to the postwar period. Yamada Isuzu, who remained at the forefront of both the stage and the silver screen for many years, was an iconic actress of the Showa period, combining the appeal of her appearance and acting.