Hideko Takamine

was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with Twenty-Four Eyes and Floating Clouds (1955) being among her most noted films.

Biography

Takamine was born in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, in 1924. At the age of four, following the death of her mother, she was placed in the care of her aunt in Tokyo. Her first role was in the Shochiku studio's 1929 film Mother (Haha), which brought her tremendous popularity as a child actor.

After moving to the Toho studio in 1937, her dramatic roles in Kajirō Yamamoto's Tsuzurikata kyōshitsu (1938) and Horse (1941) brought her added fame as a girl star. She toured as a singer to entertain Japanese troops and, after the war, sang for American occupation troops in Tokyo.

In 1950, she left Shintoho and became a freelance actress. with her "sensitive yet resourceful persona" proving ideal for "Naruse's suffering, persevering heroines" (Alexander Jacoby). Film historian Donald Richie described the characters she portrayed as follows: "Like so many Japanese women then, they wanted more out of life, but couldn’t get it. The war may have been over, women found, but they weren’t better off. They were still fairly unhappy. So the kind of roles Takamine played fit the zeitgeist, may have even made that zeitgeist." Comparing Naruse and Kinoshita, Takamine explained: "Though different in style, they shared a common aversion to things that were not natural. What I tried to do was to be as natural as women we see in the news, but adding a touch of drama so that I would be even more real." After retiring as an actress in 1979, she published her autobiography and several essay collections. She died of lung cancer on 28 December 2010 at the age of 86.

Selected filmography

Awards Japan Academy Film Prize 1996 Lifetime Achievement Award

Mainichi Film Concours for Best Actress 1955 Twenty-Four Eyes, Garden of Women, Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky 1956 Floating Clouds 1958 Times of Joy and Sorrow, Untamed 1962 Immortal Love, Happiness of Us Alone

Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress 1955 Twenty-Four Eyes, Garden of Women, Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky

Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actress 1956 Floating Clouds