Michiko Maeda

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Michiko Maeda (前田通子 - Maeda Michiko) is a Japanese film and television actress. After becoming known as the first Japanese actress to appear in a nude scene in a mainstream film, Maeda was banned from the Japanese cinema after an incident in which she refused to obey a director, and did not return to the Japanese screen until 42 years later.

Life and career

Michiko Maeda was born in Osaka on February 27, 1934. She was working in a department store in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo when she began working as an actress at the Shintōhō studio in 1955. Her film debut was in director Hiromasa Nomura's Santōshain to Onna Hisho (三等社員と女秘書), released in August 1955. Maeda's minor role as a striptease dancer in director Seiichiro Uchikawa's Eikō to Bakusō Ō (栄光と驀走王, 1956) brought her to public attention through her voluptuous figure. In their The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, Anderson and Richie described Maeda as "a star who consisted almost entirely of mammary glands."[3]

Shintōhō took advantage of Maeda's popularity to cast her in more roles in which she could display her famous figure. Other film studios reportedly engaged in a nation-wide search to discover their own buxom models to compete with Maeda.[3] Later in 1957, she was given the starring role in Revenge of the Pearl Queen (女真珠王の復讐 - Onna Shinjū Ō no Fukushū), a melodramatic thriller set on an isolated island about a woman seeking revenge for her dead lover. Maeda became notorious for playing the first nude scene in a Japanese film.[1]

Michiko Maeda

For Shintōhō, Maeda appeared in string of female pearl-diver films which exploited similar nude scenes, concluding with Woman Diver's Terror (海女の戦慄 - Ama no Senritsu) (1957). While acting in the film Konpira Riseiken (金比羅利生剣), 1957) for director Goro Katano, Maeda refused to do a scene in which she was to lift her slip for the camera. The resulting scandal became known as the "Tuck up incident" (裾まくり事件 - Suso makuri jiken), and made headlines in international news.[4][5] As a result of her refusal to obey the director, Maeda was dismissed from Shintōhō and banned from the film industry. Her exile from Japanese cinema lasted for four decades.

Maeda was invited to appear in two films in Taiwan in 1963. She returned to Japanese media with the 1972 Nippon Television soap opera, Dakuryū no Onna (渓流の女), and appeared on television and on the stage until her retirement in 1976.

After 42 years of exile from the Japanese film world pink film pioneer Satoru Kobayashi and cult film director Teruo Ishii persuaded her to appear in Ishii's 1999 remake of Nobuo Nakagawa's Jigoku (1960). Maeda played the role of Enma Daio, the Judge of Hell.[1]

Filmography

Video title[6] Release date Director Role/Notes Poster/DVD cover
三等社員と女秘書
Santou shain to onna hisho
August 18, 1955 Hiromasa Nomura .
息子一人に嫁八人 December 6, 1955 Hideo Shimura Ohan
Two Mothers
母ふたり
Haha Futari
December 13, 1955 Hiromasa Nomura .
黒猫館に消えた男 February 12, 1956 毛利正樹 Lily Yamano
栄光と驀走王
Eiko to Bakuso-ou
April 11, 1956 Seiichiro Uchikawa Maeda's role as a stripper brought to public attention
Revenge of the Pearl Queen
女真珠王の復讐
Onna Shinjuou no Fukushuu
July 5, 1956 Hideo Shimura 香川夏岐
Maeda's first starring role
First nude scene in Japanese cinema
君ひとすじに 完結篇 August 8, 1956 Hideo Shimura 大崎京子
新妻鏡 September 26, 1956 Hideo Shimura .
金語楼の天晴運転手物語 October 21, 1956 斎藤寅次郎 大下蝶子
軍神山本元帥と連合艦隊 October 31, 1956 Hideo Shimura 河合千代
波止場の王者 November 14, 1956 Seiichiro Uchikawa Sally
'Queen of Keirin Racing
女競輪王
Onna Keirin-ou
November 21, 1956 Shiro Kobayashi Miki (椎野美樹)
海の三等兵 January 13, 1957 Hideo Shimura 染太郎
関八州大利根の対決 January 27, 1957 Hideo Shimura Ofuji
Dry Wives and Ruling Husbands
ドライ夫人と亭主関白
Dry Fujin to Teishu Kanpaku
March 20, 1957 近江俊郎 .
死刑囚の勝利 April 3, 1957 Hideo Shimura 麻耶
剣聖暁の三十六人斬り April 30, 1957 山田達雄 姉みね
怒濤の兄弟 June 5, 1957 Hideo Shimura .
Woman Diver's Terror
海女の戦慄
Ama no Senritsu
June 23, 1957 Hideo Shimura Yoshi Miyagawa
Japanese Hell
地獄
Jigoku
November 20, 1999 Teruo Ishii Enma Daio, the Judge of Hell

Bibliography

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 地獄: キャスト (Hell: Cast-- < Enma Daio, the Judge of Hell > Michiko Maeda) (Japanese & English). Jigoku Homepage. Archived from the original on 2000-08-19. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Actress Will Take Off Clothes If Part Is Right" (August 29, 1957) Anderson Daily Bulletin (Anderson, Indiana). p. 3.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Anderson, Joseph L. (1982). The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Expanded Edition). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp.266-267. ISBN 0691007926. 
  4. "WONT LIFT SLIP" (English), Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, August 21, 1957. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
  5. "Actress Won't Shoot Scene In The Nude" (English), The Lima News, August 2, 1957. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
  6. Filmography based on 前田通子 (Maeda Michiko) (Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved on March 4, 2008.

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