Takekurabe (1955 film)

Takekurabe (たけくらべ, Takekurabe, lit. "Comparing heights"), English titles Growing Up, Adolescence, or Daughters of Yoshiwara, is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Heinosuke Gosho. It is based on Higuchi Ichiyō's 1895-1896 novella Takekurabe.^[1][2]

Takekurabe
Japanese movie poster
Directed by	Heinosuke Gosho
Written by	Toshio Yasumi (screenplay) Higuchi Ichiyō (novella)
Produced by	Tsūjin Fukushima Sadao Sugihara Ippei Hata
Starring	Hibari Misora Takashi Kitahara Keiko Kishi
Cinematography	Joji Ohara
Music by	Yasushi Akutagawa
Distributed by	Shintoho
Release date	28 August 1955 (1955-08-28) (Japan)[1][2]
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Plot

Growing up in the Yoshiwara red light district of Meiji era Edo, teenage boy Shinnyo, son of a buddhist priest, helplessly witnesses not only his sister Ohana being sold as a concubine by his money-loving father, but also the fate of Midori, a neighbourhood girl to whom he has an unspoken affection, who is destined to become a courtesan like her older sister Omaki.

Cast

• Hibari Misora as Midori
• Keiko Kishi as Omaki
• Mitsuko Yoshikawa as Orin, Midori's mother
• Zeko Nakamura as Gosuke, Midori's father
• Eijirō Yanagi as owner of the Daikokuya
• Takashi Kitahara as Shinnyo
• Setsuko Shinobu as Shinnyo's mother
• Takamaru Sasaki as Shinnyo's father
• Kurayoshi Nakamura as Sangoro
• Yūko Mochizuki as Sangoro's mother
• Takeshi Sakamoto as Sangoro's father
• Akira Hattori as Chokichi
• Kyū Sazanka as Tatsugoro, Chokichi's father
• Matsumoto Hakuō II (credited Somegorō Ichikawa) as Shōtarō
• Kikue Mōri as Shōtarō's grandmother
• Atsuko Ichinomiya as messenger
• Iida Chōko as Baayaotoki
• Isuzu Yamada as Okichi
• Hatae Kishi
• Kyū Sakamoto (uncredited)

Production and reception

Takekurabe was independently produced by Tsūjin Fukushima's company New Art Productions (新芸術プロダクション, Shin Geijutsu Purodakushon), which resulted in budgetary constraints and compromises in the filming. It received mixed reviews during its initial run for being "overliterary" and the casting of pop star Hibari Misora.^[3] Film scholar Donald Richie and Gosho biographer Arthur Nolletti later called Takekurabe an "outstanding example" (Nolletti)^[3] of the Meiji-mono (Meiji period film) and "one of the finest due to its excellent sets" (by Kazuo Kubo), "its superb photography and the nearly perfect performances" (Richie).^[4]

Awards

• Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress Isuzu Yamada in Takekurabe and Ishigassen^[5]