Japan

The 1950s Golden Age of the studio system in Japanese cinema is commonly tied to the efforts of directors such as Kurosawa Akira, Mizoguchi Kenji, Ozu Yasujirō, Naruse Mikiro, and Ichikawa Kon. Less attention has been paid to that fact that the careers of all these filmmakers are characterised by long collaborative relationships with a number of notable screenwriters. Western histories of Japanese film have seldom touched upon this phenomenon whereas it has usually received a more balanced treatment by Japanese scholars1, allowing for considerable prestige and visibility for screenwriters such as Noda Kōgo (1893-1968) and Yoda Yoshikata (1909-1991), who worked with Ozu and Mizoguchi respectively. On the other hand, two of the biggest screenwriting names that emerged after the World War II, Hashimoto Shinobu (1918) and Shindō Kaneto (1912-2012), scripted films directed by most of the era’s leading filmmakers. Remarkably though, shaping the oeuvre of Naruse and Ichikawa in particular, are the contributions of three female screenwriters: Mizuki Yōko (1910-2003), Tanaka Sumie (1908-2000), and Wada Natto (1920-1983). In addition, Mizuki worked extensively with Imai Tadashi, a prolific and popular director notoriously ignored in Western scholarship although enjoying almost unanimous acclaim for his socially conscious work in Japan at the time. The work of these important women screenwriters, Mizuki, Tanaka, and Wada will be addressed in length at individual entries, while the present one will provide an outline of the contributions of women screenwriters to Japanese cinema from 1920s to this day.