Tanaka Kinuyo

Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity

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Edited by Irene González-López and Michael Smith

Type: Studies
Subject: Director > Kinuyo Tanaka
Keywords: Kinuyo Tanaka, director, Japan
Publishing date: 2018
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Collection: Edinburgh Studies in East Asian Film
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 232 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4744-0969-8

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Book Presentation:
The first book in English dedicated to the actor and director Tanaka Kinuyo

Praised as amongst the greatest actors in the history of Japanese cinema, Tanaka’s career spanned the industrial development of cinema – from silent to sound, monochrome to colour. Alongside featuring in films by Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse and Kurosawa, Tanaka was also the only Japanese woman filmmaker between 1953 and 1962, and her films tackled distinctly feminine topics such as prostitution and breast cancer. Her career overlapped with a transformative period in Japanese history, and this close analysis of her fascinating life and work offers new perspectives, subjectivities and modes of analysis for the classical era of Japanese cinema.

Key Features
• A unique look at the life and career of Tanaka Kinuyo, as both an actor and director
• Offers a new perspective on the history of women and film in Japan
• Brings together a range of Japanese and western scholars

About the authors:
Irene González-López is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Visual and Material Culture Research Centre, Kingston University (London). Irene’s research interests are Cinema, Gender Studies, Popular Visual Culture, and Stardom. In addition, she is a translator and has worked with several film festivals in Japan and Europe.
Michael Smith was awarded his PhD from University of Leeds in 2013. His research looked at the representation of women in early postwar Japanese cinema, particularly focusing on how the key political and social issues of the period affected their onscreen portrayal. Michael’s main research interests are Classical-era Japanese cinema, women directors and 1990s American independent cinema.

Press Reviews:
It would appear that English language scholarship on Kinuyo Tanaka is just beginning. In addition, this volume is helpful in better understanding some of the outside forces that also played a part in the history of Japanese cinema.– Peter Nellhaus, Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee

This collection offers long-overdue attention to Japanese actress/director Tanaka Kinuyo (1909–77)...Taken together, these essays offer praise for a woman—already highly successful as an actress—who claimed her own authorship as a director and continued to grow as an actress as she aged...As someone who refused to be pigeonholed, and who took considerable chances, she blazed a strong trail for others to follow.– LINDA EHRLICH, FILM QUARTERLY

This collection provides a valuable overview of Tanaka Kinuyo’s long and prolific career as an actress and director. While Tanaka took on the roles of some of the most iconic figures in Japanese cinema, she also embodied many of the deep contradictions around women’s status in a rapidly changing society. These authors brilliantly demonstrate how Tanaka overcame multiple challenges to direct her own powerful films about men and women in the unfixed landscape of postwar Japan.– Professor Catherine Russell, Concordia University, Montreal

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press

See the complete filmography of Kinuyo Tanaka on the website: IMDB ...

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