Takako Irie

Known for ActingBorn 1911-02-07Died 1995-01-12Tokyo, Japan

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".Read more

Movies & web series

Judge of the Ashuras

Invitation to Happiness

A Husband's Chastity: If Spring Comes & Fall Once Again

Great Bodhisattva Pass

A Living Puppet

Metropolitan Symphony

Terrible Ghost Cat of Okazaki

White Heron

Enoken’s Shrewd Period

Behold This Mother

Sanjuro

The Monster Cat of the Fifty-Three Stations

Ghost-Cat of Arima Palace

Blue Sky Angel

Four Marriages

Omokage no machi

Sky of Hope

The Snake Princess

The Dawn of Manchuria and Mongolia

Ghost of Saga Mansion

The Deserted City

Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director

The Water Magician

The Ghost Cat of Ouma Crossing

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Ghost-Cat of Yonaki Swamp

Life Is like a Somersault

The Battle of Kawanakajima

Dancers of Awa

Tojuro's Love

Love Letter

Karisome no kuchibeni

Jean Valjean: Part One

Kokoro no jitsugetsu: Retsujitsu hen - Gekko hen

Yoshie Fujiwara's Hometown

Wings of Victory

A Woman's Sorrows

Learn from Experience, Part One

The House of Hanging

Learn from Experience, Part Two

Mother Never Dies

The Great White Tiger Platoon

Tokyo March

Yukiko and Natsuyo

Sincerity

The Morning Sun Shines

Lord Mito

The Most Beautiful