looking for Sachiko Chiba information

[ReelDrew at aol.com]

Dear Roland Domenig,
 
  Many, many thanks for this extremely valuable information! I will  post 
it on my site with full credit it to you.
 
  Best regards,
  William M. Drew
 
 
In a message dated 12/29/2011 6:23:30 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
roland.domenig at univie.ac.at writes:

William, this might help a little:



Chiba Sachiko was born on  Februar 16, 1911, in Hiroshima as daughter of a 
landowner. Her  birth-name was Chiba Tsuruko. From early on she received  
training in Western as well as Japanese music. She became a disciple  of the 
blind koto player and  composer Miyagi Michio, a founder of the so-called 
Shin-Nihon-Ongaku (New  Japanese Music) movement, and worked as a musical 
performer. In 1931/32 she  joined the ensemble of the shakuhachi player Yoshida 
Seifû, a co-founder of  the Shin-Nihon-Ongaku movement, on aconcert tour to 
the United States. On  recommendation of the manager of the opera singer 
Fujiwara Yoshie, whom she  had met during the concert tour in the United States, 
she was cast for the  film Sakebu  Ajia (1933), a propaganda movie  
commemorating the first anniversary of the foundation of Manchukuo directed by  
Uchida Tomu with Fujiwara Yoshie in thelead role. The film was produced by  
Shineigasha, a production company founded in late 1932 by Murata Minoru,  
Uchida Tomu, Itô Daisuke and others who had left Nikkatsu after quarrels with  
studio executives. The sound of the film was recorded by P.C.L., which - after 
 a failed deal with Nikkatsu - was compelled to start producing films on 
its  own in order to avoid losses. Due to the rather strict contracts of the 
film  companies, which bound actors exclusively to astudio, P.C.L. could not 
employ  established film stars, but had to resort to stage actors or new 
talents.  Since she had left a good impression in Sakebu Ajia P.C.L. signed on 
Chiba Sachiko, who eventually became  P.C.L’s leading actress. Chiba’s 
musicality certainly contributed to her rise  to fame starting with P.C.L.’s 
first production Horoyoi jinsei (dir. Kimura Sotoji, 1933). In 1935 she starred 
in  Joyû to  shijin, the second P.C.L. film of  Naruse Mikio. Her next film 
with Naruse, Tsuma yo bara no yô ni (1935), was voted best film of the year 
by the  critics jury of the Kinema  Junpô magazine and was one of the  
first Japanese films released in the Unites States (in 1937 under the title  
Kimiko). She starred in several more films of Naruse, whom  in January 1937 she 
eventually married (they got divorced in 1940). After the  hugely 
successful two-part film adaptation of Yoshiya Nobuko’s  Otto no  teisô,  19﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽ 
her retirement. Chiba Sachiko died on ne Hideko. der the title  Kimiko)  
(dir. Yamamoto Kajirô, 1937)  for which she also recorded the theme song, she 
took a maternity leave. When  she returnedP.C.L. had meanwhile merged into 
Tôhô. She scored big commercial  successes with Katei  nikki (2 parts, dir. 
Yamamoto  Satsuo, 1938) and Onna no  kyôshitsu (2 parts, dir. Abe Yutaka,  
1939), both again based on novels by Yoshiya Nobuko, but increasingly she  
found herself cast in supporting roles while the lead roles went to other  
actresses. She went on to make films until 1942, but was overshadowed by new  
stars such as Hara Setsuko and Takamine Hideko. She therefore abandoned cinema 
 and for a brief time continued as stage actress. But this didn’t last 
long,  presumably also because of the increasingly difficult situation in the 
final  years of the war. After the war Chiba Sachiko became a quite successful 
 businesswoman. In 1946, with the help of Yuki Teiichi, one of Japan’s 
leading  haute  cuisine chefs and founder of the  kaiseki restaurant chain 
Kitchô, she opened a traditional  Japanese restaurant in Shibuya (at first it 
catered mostly to members of the  American occupation forces and for a period 
was renamed “Pacific Royal’s  Club”). In 1956 she went to the United States 
and worked as advisor for a  Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles’ Little 
Tokyo. In 1965 she finally became  managing director of the Western 
confectionery “Français” in Tokyo, a post she  held until her retirement. Chiba Sachiko 
died on October 22, 1993, after a  stroke at the age of 82. 
Roland  Domenig 
University of  Vienna


Von: <_ReelDrew at aol.com_ (mailto:ReelDrew at aol.com) >
Antworten an: Kine Japan <_KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu_ 
(mailto:KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu) >
Datum: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:14:01  -0500
An: Kine Japan <_KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu_ 
(mailto:KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu) >
Betreff: Re: looking for Sachiko Chiba  information




 

Unfortunately, I can't just run out and buy the book you mentioned. I'm  
working on a deadline. I'm not asking for exhaustive details on Sachiko  
Chiba--just the most elementary facts which you can find on a prominent  actress 
of her generation in almost any major film-producing country in the  world. 
If this were a famous 1930s actress in the Egyptian, Indian and Chinese  
cinemas of those years, for example, all I would have to do is Google her name  
and find the most basic facts (and probably a lot more) in English as these 
 other great cinemas of the East have far more of an Internet presence than 
 that of Japan, it seems. I had earlier posted here asking if Sachiko Chiba 
was  still alive, and, if not, when she passed away. At that time, even 
that  information was not readily available at a standard source like the IMDB. 
 After a member of KineJapan kindly supplied me (and the public in general) 
 with that information, I note that the IMDB subsequently picked up on that 
and  now carries the date of her passing. So again, I would like to know if 
she  began her career in the theatre, if she appeared in any silent films 
at the  start of her career, and if she continued on in some other branch of 
show  business after leaving the screen or did she pursue some other 
occupation in  later years.
 
William M. Drew
 
In a message dated 12/29/2011 1:43:15 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, 
_faithbach at yahoo.co.jp_ (mailto:faithbach at yahoo.co.jp)  writes:
 
Dear Mr Drew,
 
You can easily find the answers to these and many other questions  about 
Chiba Sachiko on pp. 148-151 of Vol. II of Nihon Eiga Jinmei  Jiten 
(Illustrated Who's Who of Japanese Cinema: Actresses  [sic]), ed/pub. by Kinema 
Jumposha in 1995 and still  available for sale and in libraries.
 
Faith Bach
--- On Thu, 2011/12/29, _ReelDrew at aol.com_ (mailto:ReelDrew at aol.com)  
<_ReelDrew at aol.com_ (mailto:ReelDrew at aol.com) >  wrote:





For what may be the final post of the year on a website I have,  I've been 
planning to pay a (very belated) tribute to outstanding  film actresses born 
in 1911. However, in searching for basic  information on Sachiko Chiba on 
the Internet, including Google book  search, I seem to have run into a 
barrier. Can anyone give me data  on any of the following: what was Sachiko 
Chiba's background? Did  she work as an actress in the theatre prior to her entry 
into films  in 1933? Were any of her early screen appearances in silent 
films?  Why did she stop making films after her last screen appearance in  1944, 
two years after her divorce from Mikio Naruse? What did she do  after she 
stopped making films? Did she work in the theatre or on  radio and TV? Or did 
she have some other occupation outside of show  business? Did she remarry? 
Assuming as I am that she was retired in  her last years, does anyone know 
here for approximately how  long?
 
I'm hoping I can get at least some answers to these questions  from the 
very knowledgeable people here regarding Sachiko  Chiba.
 
William M.  Drew







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