Kinuyo Tanaka

Japanese actress and film director

Born

29 November 1909, Shimonoseki

Died

21 March 1977

Citizenship

Japan, Empire of Japan

Occupation

actor, film director, film actor, child actor, director

Films here

3

Kinuyo Tanaka (Japanese: 田中 絹代, Hepburn: Tanaka Kinuyo; 29 November 1909 – 21 March 1977) was a Japanese actress and film director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 acting credits, but was best known for her 15 films with director Kenji Mizoguchi, such as The Life of Oharu (1952) and Ugetsu (1953). With her 1953 directorial debut, Love Letter, Tanaka became the second Japanese woman to direct a film, after Tazuko Sakane. Tanaka won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her performance in the film Sandakan No. 8 (1974).

Filmography (martial arts films)

Frequent collaborators

• Kyōko Kagawa

External links

• Wikipedia
• IMDb
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q263104 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.