The First Female Gaze at Post-war Japanese Women: Tanaka Kinuyo, Film Director

The chapter focuses on the production and reception of Love Letter ( Koibumi , 1953) and The Moon Has Risen ( Tsuki wa noborinu , 1955) –the first two films directed by Tanaka—to call into question the meaning and construction of the category of ‘woman director’. The chapter is divided in three parts. The first contextualises Tanaka’s decision to become a director within the post-war legal and social changes affecting women, illuminating how she positioned herself within trending discourses. The second offers a textual analysis of the representation of gender roles and power dynamics in both films to question whether Tanaka was offering new perspectives on the subject. The last part illuminates how the figure of ‘woman director’ was being defined, contextualised and negotiated in the public sphere by a detailed analysis of promotional material and reviews from the contemporaneous Japanese press.