Ritsuko Mori
{{short description|Japanese actress}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ritsuko Mori
| image = RitsukoMoribyElizKeith1918.png
| alt = A sketch of a smiling young Japanese woman wearing a boater hat, striped blazer, necktie, belted trousers, and tied shoes, hands holding the lapels
| caption = Ritsuko Mori as sketched by Elizabeth Keith, from a 1918 publication
| native_name = 森律子
| native_name_lang = Japanese
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 30 October 1890
| birth_place = Tokyo
| death_date = 22 July 1961
| death_place =
| occupation = Actress
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Ritsuko Mori (30 October 1890 – 22 July 1961) (森律子 in Japanese, or もり りつこ in kana) was a Japanese actress. As a woman from a respected family, her entry into the acting profession was considered disreputable, but her success improved the opportunities and social standing of professional actresses in Japan.
Early life
Mori was born in Tokyo, the daughter of Hajime Mori, a lawyer and politician.{{Cite journal |last=Wilds |first=Edith |date=April 1919 |title=Ritsuko Mori, Star and Pioneer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PXBIAAAAYAAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=RA3-PA45 |journal=Everybody's Magazine |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=45}} She graduated from Atomi Girls' School.{{Cite book |last=DeForest |first=Charlotte Burgis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hm01AAAAIAAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA143 |title=The Woman and the Leaven in Japan |date=1923 |publisher=Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions |pages=143–144 |language=en}} She was one of the first students trained as an actress with Sada Yacco, at the Imperial Training School for Actresses.{{Cite book |last=Downer |first=Lesley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmFVoqgEndoC&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA288 |title=Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha who Bewitched the West |date=2003 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-59240-050-8 |pages=288 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Darby |first1=Trudi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i8I3DwAAQBAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA50 |title=English Without Boundaries: Reading English from China to Canada |last2=Roberts |first2=Jane |date=2017-08-21 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-0058-7 |pages=50 |language=en}} She toured in Europe to study Western theatre in 1913.{{Cite book |last=Faust |first=Allen Klein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RE8YAAAAIAAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA93 |title=The New Japanese Womanhood |date=1926 |publisher=George H. Doran |pages=93 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=March 22, 1913 |title=Farewell to Miss Mori |pages=1141 |work=Japan Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIQ-AQAAMAAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA1141}}
Career
Mori's choice of an acting career was considered a shocking embarrassment to her family and social circles.{{Cite book |last1=Sewell |first1=Jan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eovgDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA341 |title=The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage |last2=Smout |first2=Clare |date=2020-04-29 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-23828-5 |pages=341 |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=McKee |first=Rose |date=1936-11-25 |title=A New Deal for the Fair Sex in Japan's Show Business |pages=3 |work=The Orlando Sentinel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112437951/a-new-deal-for-the-fair-sex-in-japans/ |access-date=2022-11-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite book |last=Kano |first=Ayako |url=http://archive.org/details/actinglikewomani0000kano |title=Acting like a woman in modern Japan : theater, gender, and nationalism |date=2001 |publisher=New York : Palgrave |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-312-29291-1 |pages=74}} "All my relatives and friends were against it and even persecuted me," she explained in 1919. Her success improved the social standing of Japanese women working in the theatre.{{Cite book |last=Atwood |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ETr1DwAAQBAJ&dq=Ritsuko%20Mori&pg=PT166 |title=The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison: America's First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent |date=2020-09-01 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=978-1-68247-530-0 |language=en}} She was inspired by many performers who went before her, including male Peking opera star Mei Lanfang.{{Cite book |last=Tian |first=M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qWddAQAAQBAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PT64 |title=Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage: Chinese Theatre Placed and Displaced |date=2012-01-02 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-01043-8 |language=en}}
Mori appeared in stage comedies,{{Cite news |date=1913-06-29 |title=Japanese Take up the Task of Westernising Eastern Stage |pages=14 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16732278/japanese-take-up-the-task-of/ |access-date=2022-11-02 |via=Newspapers.com}} dramas, kabuki,{{Cite book |last=Isaka |first=Maki |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eERkCwAAQBAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA128 |title=Onnagata: A Labyrinth of Gendering in Kabuki Theater |date=2016-04-05 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-295-80624-2 |pages=128 |language=en}} and operettas.{{Cite journal |date=June 1918 |title=Miss Ritsuko Mori |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qlc7AQAAMAAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA621 |journal=The New East |volume=2 |issue=6 |pages=621}} In 1916, she played a blind heroine character in a one-act tragedy, Mitsu-no-Kokoro, at the Imperial Theatre.{{Cite news |date=July 8, 1916 |title=Suggestions of Coolness |pages=492 |work=The Herald of Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K0c8AQAAIAAJ&dq=Ritsuko%20Mori&pg=PA492 |access-date=November 2, 2022}} A Western reviewer described her "interesting" performance in a breeches role in 1918, saying Mori "gets full play for her vivacity and skill." Also in 1918, she played Portia in an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice by Yuzo Tsubouchi.{{Cite news |date=March 16, 1918 |title=Dr. Tsubouchi's Work |pages=30 |work=The Evening Post |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LspwnLe3QcwC&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA30 |access-date=November 2, 2022}} In 1919 she gave a eulogy speech at the funeral of her colleague, actress Sumako Matsui; "Why must you leave us, the actresses of Japan, struggling hard for the perfection of woman's part upon the stage, new to the Japanese public and most difficult for us?"{{Cite news |date=1919-02-21 |title=Japan Upset by Dying Wish of Famous Actress |pages=6 |work=The Courier-Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112436930/japan-upset-by-dying-wish-of-famous/ |access-date=2022-11-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Mori was "the leading lady of the Imperial Theatre" and helped with managing the theatre's productions in the 1920s, according to American journalist Marguerite Harrison.{{Cite book |last=Harrison |first=Marguerite |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X3tCAAAAIAAJ&dq=Ritsuko+Mori&pg=PA44 |title=Red Bear Or Yellow Dragon |date=1924 |publisher=George H. Doran Company |pages=44–47; quote on 44 |language=en}} She officially welcomed Irish tenor John McCormack on his arrival in Tokyo in 1926.{{Cite news |date=1926-09-28 |title=Tokio Welcomes Tenor |pages=8 |work=The Evening News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112436624/tokio-welcomes-tenor/ |access-date=2022-11-02 |via=Newspapers.com}} In the 1930s she worked with actor Shotaro Hanayagi.{{Cite news |last= |date=1937-09-08 |title=Japan Following Hollywood in Modern Screen Devices |pages=2 |work=The Honolulu Advertiser |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112437579/japan-following-hollywood-in-modern/ |access-date=2022-11-02 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
She adopted her niece, actress Kakuko Mori. She died in 1961, at the age of 70.{{fact|date=October 2024}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://pages.uoregon.edu/jsmacollections/home/artists/yamamura-toyonari-1885-1942/ritsuko-mori-in-the-role-of-kiyoko.html A woodblock portrait of Ritsuko Mori] by Yamamura Toyonari (1915), in the Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints at the University of Oregon; [https://honolulumuseum.org/collections/53294/ another print] of this image is in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mori, Ritsuko}}