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Ritsuko Mori

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Ritsuko Mori
森律子
A sketch of a smiling young Japanese woman wearing a boater hat, striped blazer, necktie, belted trousers, and tied shoes, hands holding the lapels
Ritsuko Mori as sketched by Elizabeth Keith, from a 1918 publication
Born30 October 1890
Tokyo
Died22 July 1961
OccupationActress

Ritsuko Mori (30 October 1890 – 22 July 1961) (森律子 in Japanese, or もり りつこ in kana) was a Japanese actress. As a woman from a respected family, her entry into the acting profession was considered disreputable, but her success improved the opportunities and social standing of professional actresses in Japan.

Early life

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Mori was born in Tokyo, the daughter of Hajime Mori, a lawyer and politician.[1] She graduated from Atomi Girls' School.[2] She was one of the first students trained as an actress with Sada Yacco, at the Imperial Training School for Actresses.[3][4] She toured in Europe to study Western theatre in 1913.[5][6]

Career

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Mori's choice of an acting career was considered a shocking embarrassment to her family and social circles.[7][8][9] "All my relatives and friends were against it and even persecuted me," she explained in 1919.[1] Her success improved the social standing of Japanese women working in the theatre.[10] She was inspired by many performers who went before her, including male Peking opera star Mei Lanfang.[11]

Mori appeared in stage comedies,[12] dramas,[13] kabuki,[14] and operettas.[15] In 1916, she played a blind heroine character in a one-act tragedy, Mitsu-no-Kokoro, at the Imperial Theatre.[13] A Western reviewer described her "interesting" performance in a breeches role in 1918, saying Mori "gets full play for her vivacity and skill."[15] Also in 1918, she played Portia in an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice by Yuzo Tsubouchi.[16] In 1919 she gave a eulogy speech at the funeral of her colleague, actress Sumako Matsui; "Why must you leave us, the actresses of Japan, struggling hard for the perfection of woman's part upon the stage, new to the Japanese public and most difficult for us?"[17]

Mori was "the leading lady of the Imperial Theatre" and helped with managing the theatre's productions in the 1920s,[2] according to American journalist Marguerite Harrison.[18] She officially welcomed Irish tenor John McCormack on his arrival in Tokyo in 1926.[19] In the 1930s she worked with actor Shotaro Hanayagi.[20]

Personal life

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She adopted her niece, actress Kakuko Mori. She died in 1961, at the age of 70.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ a b Wilds, Edith (April 1919). "Ritsuko Mori, Star and Pioneer". Everybody's Magazine. 40 (4): 45.
  2. ^ a b DeForest, Charlotte Burgis (1923). The Woman and the Leaven in Japan. Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. pp. 143–144.
  3. ^ Downer, Lesley (2003). Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha who Bewitched the West. Penguin. p. 288. ISBN 978-1-59240-050-8.
  4. ^ Darby, Trudi; Roberts, Jane (21 August 2017). English Without Boundaries: Reading English from China to Canada. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-5275-0058-7.
  5. ^ Faust, Allen Klein (1926). The New Japanese Womanhood. George H. Doran. p. 93.
  6. ^ "Farewell to Miss Mori". Japan Times. 22 March 1913. p. 1141.
  7. ^ Sewell, Jan; Smout, Clare (29 April 2020). The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage. Springer Nature. p. 341. ISBN 978-3-030-23828-5.
  8. ^ McKee, Rose (25 November 1936). "A New Deal for the Fair Sex in Japan's Show Business". The Orlando Sentinel. p. 3. Retrieved 2 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Kano, Ayako (2001). Acting like a woman in modern Japan : theater, gender, and nationalism. Internet Archive. New York : Palgrave. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-312-29291-1.
  10. ^ Atwood, Elizabeth (1 September 2020). The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison: America's First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-68247-530-0.
  11. ^ Tian, M. (2 January 2012). Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage: Chinese Theatre Placed and Displaced. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-01043-8.
  12. ^ "Japanese Take up the Task of Westernising Eastern Stage". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 29 June 1913. p. 14. Retrieved 2 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b "Suggestions of Coolness". The Herald of Asia. 8 July 1916. p. 492. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  14. ^ Isaka, Maki (5 April 2016). Onnagata: A Labyrinth of Gendering in Kabuki Theater. University of Washington Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-295-80624-2.
  15. ^ a b "Miss Ritsuko Mori". The New East. 2 (6): 621. June 1918.
  16. ^ "Dr. Tsubouchi's Work". The Evening Post. 16 March 1918. p. 30. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  17. ^ "Japan Upset by Dying Wish of Famous Actress". The Courier-Journal. 21 February 1919. p. 6. Retrieved 2 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Harrison, Marguerite (1924). Red Bear Or Yellow Dragon. George H. Doran Company. pp. 44–47, quote on 44.
  19. ^ "Tokio Welcomes Tenor". The Evening News. 28 September 1926. p. 8. Retrieved 2 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Japan Following Hollywood in Modern Screen Devices". The Honolulu Advertiser. 8 September 1937. p. 2. Retrieved 2 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
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