Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film

[Maria Jose Gonzalez]

Peter,I have finally watched "No Blood Relation" which I rescued from a pile of unwatched/unread shelves.
Were you referring to Joji Oka as Mr. Kusakabe who tries to help Masako get Shigeko back?
If so,it might come as a disappointment to you that -as far as I know- he has no Ainu connection...
He was born in Tokyo and attended Rikkyo University where he studied Commerce.He worked for a while as the manager of Columbia Phonographs advertising section before joining Nikkatsu and later Shochiku to become a true matinee idol.
As in other cinemas,Hollywood played an important role influencing how actors looked.
Hairstyles,the appropriate wardrobe and a somewhat striking or different physique could help typecast some actors in certain roles.
Besides,as in other industries,Japanese actors or actors of mixed descent would play the role of foreigners.
A good example,pointed out to me by Faith Bach whilst discussing some actors once,is Saito Tatsuo.
Having studied abroad and worked for a foreign company together with his looks enabled him to play foreign roles or those of people with some sort of contact with foreign countries or greatly interested in them,such as the painter in Shimizu's "Minato no Nihon Musume" which by the way also features Yukiko Inoue as "Dora" and Egawa Ureo as "Henry" (both had a foreign parent,one Dutch the other German).
Back to Naruse's film,Mr. Kusakabe has just returned from a foreign country.
The beard is thus a perfect conveyor of foreigness,together with a slightly different hat and his (Hollywoodian) handsome look.
"Nasanu naka" had appeared in a serialised form in 1912 and before Naruse's version there had already been six films based on the story.The 1949 has Kusakabe as a pediatrician!
Something I found very interesting was the return of the made-it- in-Hollywood! Japanese actress...
Will need to have a look at that later...
Markus,thank you very much for the correct transliteration of Chipuchisekor.He deserves much recognition.

Maria-Jose





________________________________
From: Peter Larson <pslarson2 at gmail.com>
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Sent: Saturday, September 3, 2011 12:01 PM
Subject: Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film

Hello all,

This will be an odd question, but does anyone know if there were any
Ainu actors in prewar Japanese film? I have seen a couple of silents
recently which featured actors that look like they might, in fact, be
of Ainu decent, though I could just be seeing things. The western
looking man in Naruse's "No Blood Relation" (1932) comes to mindPardon
me if this is an odd question.

Pete
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