Takako Irie

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".

Sanjuro

Mutsuta's wife

The Most Beautiful

Noriko Mizushima, dorm mother

The Little Girl Who Conquered Time

Tatsu Fukamachi

Jean Valjean: Part Two

Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director

Invitation to Happiness

The Great White Tiger Platoon

Legend of the Cat Monster

Akiko Ryuzoji

The Battle of Kawanakajima

Chiyono - widow

Wings of Victory

The Morning Sun Shines

girl in the elevator

Love Letter

The Deserted City

Shino

Life Is like a Somersault

Ghost-Cat of Yonaki Swamp

Notebooks of Heiji Zenigata: Spider on the Skin

A Woman's Sorrows

Learn from Experience, Part One

Toyomi

The Water Magician

Taki no Shiraito

Nage Utasamon niban tegara: Tsuri tenjô no semushi otoko

Tokyo March

早百合

Metropolitan Symphony

Reiko Yamada

A Husband's Chastity: Fall Again

Fighting Letter for 29 People

Mother Never Dies

Kagebōshi

千賀

The House of Hanging

Chizu Igarashi

Ghost of Saga Mansion

Otoyo-no-kata

A Husband's Chastity: If Spring Comes

Terrible Ghost Cat of Okazaki

Great Bodhisattva Pass 2

Ohama

Lord Mito

Green Earth

壮士劇場

Mother's Melody

Matashirō Fighting Journey

Dancers of Awa

Tojuro's Love

Sincerity

Tobiko Haseyama

Behold This Mother

Yoshie Fujiwara's Hometown

Workwoman

The Roar of The Lion

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

A Living Puppet

Hiroko Kumikawa

The Monster Cat of the Fifty-Three Stations

Court Lady Fujinami

Four Marriages

Sky of Hope

Makiko

Zoku kagebōshi ryūkoaiutsutsu

White Heron

Blue Sky Angel

The Snake Princess

Kuriyama Daizen

Judge of the Ashuras

Great Bodhisattva Pass

Ghost-Cat of Arima Palace

Matenro sôtohen

Jean Valjean: Part One

Enoken’s Shrewd Period

Yukiko and Natsuyo

Yukiko

Tsuki yori no shisha

Michiko Nonoguchi, nurse

Koyoi Tsuma to Narinu

The Dawn of Manchuria and Mongolia

Shiho Hime

Omokage no machi

Kurama Tengu: The Fire Festival

Learn from Experience, Part Two