Between 1951 and 1960, director Yoshimura Kozaburo (1911–2000) dramatized female experience in Kyoto in a sequence of films, thereby interrogating wider cultural questions in the context of dramatic social change. The interest and complexity of Yoshimura Kozaburo's Itsuwareru seiso lies in the way in which it presents the geisha system as one facet of female experience in Kyoto, juxtaposing a geisha with a “respectable” working woman. Clothes of Deception marked a turning point in Yoshimura's career. While Taeko's marriage forms the happy ending to Clothes of Deception , the marriage portrayed in Night River is neither idealized nor damned. Night River establishes a contrast between tradition and modernity. Like Night River , A Woman's Uphill Slope dramatizes a woman's personal and professional life. In depicting the experiences of women in the old capital, Yoshimura engages in a complex and unresolved exploration of the relation of women to tradition and modernity.
Jacoby, Alexander
School of Education, Humanities and Languages
Year of publication: 2022Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-05-30
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