Takako Irie
Acting • Born 1911-02-07 – Died 1995-01-12
Biography
Takako Irie (入江 たか子 Irie Takako, 7 February 1911 – 12 January 1995) was a Japanese film actress. Born in Tokyo into the aristocratic Higashibōjō family (her birth name was Hideko Higashibōjō (東坊城 英子 Higashibōjō Hideko)), she graduated from Bunka Gakuin before debuting as an actress at Nikkatsu in 1927. She became a major star, even starting her own production company, Irie Productions, in 1932. One of Kenji Mizoguchi's silent film masterpieces, The Water Magician, was produced at that company with Irie starring. She appeared in many advertisements, as well as on fans and other commercial goods. Irie was also the subject of a folding screen painting by Nihonga artist Nakamura Daizaburō, which appeared in the 1930 Teiten (Imperial Exhibition), and which is today in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art; toy dolls were also produced based on this image. In the postwar period, Irie became known as a "ghost cat actress" (bakeneko joyū) for appearing in a series of kaidan (ghost story) movies. One of her late memorable roles was in Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro, where she plays Mutsuta's wife, the lady who warns Sanjuro (Toshirō Mifune) that "the best sword stays in its scabbard".
Filmography
73 credits
Sanjuro
Movie • 1962
Mutsuta's wife
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Movie • 1983
Tatsu Fukamachi
The Morning Sun Shines
Movie • 1929
girl in the elevator
The Most Beautiful
Movie • 1944
Noriko Mizushima, dorm mother
Judge of the Ashuras
Movie • 1951
The Dawn of Manchuria and Mongolia
Movie • 1932
Shiho Hime
Yoshie Fujiwara's Hometown
Movie • 1930
Workwoman
Matenro sôtohen
Movie • 1929
The Deserted City
Movie • 1984
Shino
The Water Magician
Movie • 1933
Taki no Shiraito
Tojuro's Love
Movie • 1938
Nage Utasamon niban tegara: Tsuri tenjô no semushi otoko
Movie • 1954
A Husband's Chastity: If Spring Comes & Fall Once Again
Movie • 1937
White Heron
Movie • 1941
Green Earth
Movie • 1942
Learn from Experience, Part One
Movie • 1937
Toyomi
Learn from Experience, Part Two
Movie • 1937
Toyomi
Life Is like a Somersault
Movie • 1946
Kagebōshi
Movie • 1950
千賀
Zoku kagebōshi ryūkoaiutsutsu
Movie • 1950
Koyoi Tsuma to Narinu
Movie • 1947
Enoken’s Shrewd Period
Movie • 1939
Ghost of Saga Mansion
Movie • 1953
Otoyo-no-kata
Ghost-Cat of Arima Palace
Movie • 1953
Terrible Ghost Cat of Okazaki
Movie • 1954
The Monster Cat of the Fifty-Three Stations
Movie • 1956
Court Lady Fujinami
Ghost-Cat of Yonaki Swamp
Movie • 1957
Karisome no kuchibeni
Movie • 1934
Akiko
The Ghost Cat of Ouma Crossing
Movie • 1954
Jean Valjean: Part One
Movie • 1931
Odoroki ikka
Movie • 1949
Blue Sky Angel
Movie • 1950
The House of Hanging
Movie • 1979
Chizu Igarashi
Jean Valjean: Part Two
Movie • 1931
Sincerity
Movie • 1939
Tobiko Haseyama
Kokoro no jitsugetsu: Retsujitsu hen - Gekko hen
Movie • 1931
Kurama Tengu: The Fire Festival
Movie • 1951
壮士劇場
Movie • 1947
Love Letter
Movie • 1953
The Snake Princess
Movie • 1940
Karayuki-san
Movie • 1937
A Woman's Sorrows
Movie • 1937
Mother Never Dies
Movie • 1942
Yukiko and Natsuyo
Movie • 1941
Yukiko
Behold This Mother
Movie • 1930
Lord Mito
Movie • 1957
Great Bodhisattva Pass 2
Movie • 1936
Ohama
Wings of Victory
Movie • 1942
Omokage no machi
Movie • 1942
The Battle of Kawanakajima
Movie • 1941
Chiyono - widow
Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director
Movie • 1975
Self
Great Bodhisattva Pass
Movie • 1935
A Living Puppet
Movie • 1929
Hiroko Kumikawa
Tokyo March
Movie • 1929
早百合
Four Marriages
Movie • 1944
Metropolitan Symphony
Movie • 1929
Reiko Yamada
Dancers of Awa
Movie • 1941
The Great White Tiger Platoon
Movie • 1954
Legend of the Cat Monster
Movie • 1983
Akiko Ryuzoji
Tsuki yori no shisha
Movie • 1934
Michiko Nonoguchi, nurse
Tales of a Drifter
Movie • 1951
Mother's Melody
Movie • 1937
The Roar of The Lion
Movie • 1955
Matashirō Fighting Journey
Movie • 1956
Invitation to Happiness
Movie • 1947
Fighting Letter for 29 People
Movie • 1957
Sky of Hope
Movie • 1942
Makiko
Kuriyama Daizen
Movie • 1936
Notebooks of Heiji Zenigata: Spider on the Skin
Movie • 1956
A Husband's Chastity: Fall Again
Movie • 1937
A Husband's Chastity: If Spring Comes
Movie • 1937
Maiko monogatari
Movie • 1954
妻恋黒田節
Movie • 1954