The 1930s and 1950s are heralded as the Golden Age of Japanese C inema due to the number and quality of films made as well as the size of Japanese audiences during those years. Actor Setsuko Hara frequently worked with headlining directors of the era, among them Yasujiro Ozu, Mikio Naruse, and Akira Kurosawa.

Hara made her debut into the world of film while still in her teens. Her performances in "Tokyo Story" and other works by Yasujiro Ozu in particular are widely regarded as some of her best work. However, Hara retired suddenly from the screen when Ozu passed away in 1963. She was 42. She never appeared again in the public eye, and died at age 95 in 2015. With a career illustrious enough for her to earn the title “the Greta Garbo of Japan,” Hara has been given a somewhat godlike place in the history of Japanese film.

She was also frequently given the moniker “the eternal virgin” as a way to explain her immense popularity. The term captured the adoration people felt towards her lovely face as well as their admiration of her roles as a dutiful wife. However, Setsuko Hara has more charms that go beyond this fixed persona.

In this article, we’ll take a fresh look at Setsuko Hara’s career as that of an individual performer, separated from the men around her or male-dominated perspectives, as typified by the “virgin” label and tendency to place her on a godlike pedestal. We spoke with queer studies and film/visual culture scholar Yuka Kanno about Setsuko Hara, particularly in relation to her work with director Yasujiro Ozu.

Text: Yoko Hasada　Edit: Kimi Idonuma(CINRA, Inc.)

Girl, goddess, daughter: the confines of representations over the years

── Could you start by giving us a brief history of Setsuko Hara as an actor?

Kanno： Setsuko Hara was born in 1920. She entered the world of film when she was 15 years old, in part to support her impoverished family. In her debut film, "Tamerau nakare wakodo yo" (1935), she typified the image of a “pure, sweet little girl”. But as she matured, the world began to see her more as emblematic of the “modern young woman” or “quintessential beauty.”

This modernism referred both to her looks and character. Though I think it’s problematic to describe an outward appearance as “modern,” newspapers and magazines of the time seemed to almost exclusively equate a “modern” look with a face highlighted by larger, more well-defined eyes and a physical stature that was a bit larger than the typical Japanese actress.

When it came to character, Japanese actresses were historically considered an adorable purity about them, both physically and in terms of their personalities (Kinuyo Tanaka and Takako Irie come to mind). Setsuko Hara, however, was known for her extremely bold characteristics from the earliest stages of her career. (Source: Sharing old masterpieces from Kinuyo Tanaka and others with the world through digital restoration)

── Setsuko Hara later caught the attention of German director Arnold Fanck when she was filming Kochiyama Soshun (1936) by Sadao Yamanaka, eventually appeared in the Japanese-German film "The Daughter of the Samurai" (1936).

Kanno: "The Daughter of the Samurai" catapulted Setsuko Hara into fame, which led to her appearing in propaganda films during World War II. The image she presented of a “woman stoically bearing hardship at home” while soldiers went off to war took hold, earning Setsuko Hara the title “goddess of the home front.”

But that image changed dramatically once the war ended. As national sentiment trended towards women’s liberation, she frequently played bright, assertive, and independent women. Eventually, Hara became known as the “goddess of postwar democracy.” It was probably Akira Kurosawa’s "No Regrets for Our Youth" (1946) and Tadashi Imai’s "Aoi Sanmyaku" (1949) that solidified this image. In the highly successful "Aoi Sanmyaku" (1949), Hara played an energetic schoolteacher who enjoyed playing sports with students.

I think another dominant image of Setsuko Hara has that of the “daughter of a good middle-class family”—one that combined intelligence with good character. This representation is typified in Yasujiro Ozu’s "Late Spring" (1949), "Early Summer" (1951), and "Tokyo Story" (1953). Hara’s characters were given the name “Noriko” in all three of these films, which are now referred to as the “Noriko trilogy.”

The confining representations were so dominant in each era, that we can only assume Hara felt conflicted towards them.

Unknown roles as an ordinary woman with a unique personality— not an untouchable “eternal virgin”

── When did the moniker “the eternal virgin” come about?

Kanno: My research suggests it was around 1946, prior to when Hara began appearing in Ozu’s films. A film producer referred to her in that way in a magazine called "Movie Fan", which I believe was the first time. In conjunction with representing the Noriko characters, Hara later began to take on a kind of “desexualized” aspect which progressively turned into a deification.

But according to the actors and staff who worked with her, Hara was an extremely approachable person—shy yet friendly, with a fondness for drinking and smoking.

She also had a rather cool side to her, never once indulging in flattery during interviews. When an interviewer asked what Hara thought the secret of her charm was, she responded, ”Charm? That’s for other people to decide.” It was an incredibly curt reply, one that comes across as funny when you read the old article.

Kanno: Hara also had a number of more unique roles that are less well-known. One of my favorites is in "Fundoshi Isha" (1960) by Hiroshi Inagaki. In the film, Hara plays a married woman who loves to gamble. When she runs out of money, she gracefully requests that her husband loan her his kimono— which she then promptly pawns off "[laughs]". It’s a wild, strange role.

People often equate Setsuko Hara with Yasujiro Ozu’s films, citing those performances as expressing her true persona while negatively appraising her others as “inconsistent” or worse. It’s a clear split of evaluation. But I personally find Hara to be a self-assured performer with a rich, multifaceted nature—one who takes her roles seriously while also having fun with them.

Hara reveals her deep bonds with women both in Ozu’s works and in her own life

── The paper you wrote for a feature on Setsuko Hara by the National Film Archive of Japan presented an incredibly fresh perspective on her. You suggested that what really stood out are the relationships between Hara’s characters and other women in Ozu’s films.

Kanno: I’ve been interested in feminist and queer aspects of the films, so I’m always paying attention to the bonds between women when I watch films. In Ozu’s films, Hara actually seems to shine the most in scenes where she’s spending time with other women, chatting with them or sharing a bite to eat.

Her relationships with her mother-in-law and her niece towards the end of "Tokyo Story" are deeply moving—and I love the bonds she develops with her sister-in-law and her female neighbor in "Early Summer". There are so many scenes I like, but one that sticks with me the most is in "Early Summer".

The Noriko trilogy films all feature a best friend named Aya, and in this scene Aya cheerfully reveals to a mutual acquaintance that Noriko collected old “Hepburn” photographs during her student years.

Kanno: The English subtitles translate “Hepburn” as “Audrey Hepburn,” but if you think about the year that Noriko and Aya would have been students given that the movie was released in 1951, it’s clear they must be referring to the 1930s movie star Katharine Hepburn.

Katharine Hepburn is a renowned lesbian icon alongside Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. That’s not to claim that Noriko was a lesbian, but it is quite interesting that her character admired female movie stars as a student, given the Japanese historical context of so-called "esu" relationships, most notably at girls’ schools, involving extremely intimate relationships between females.

── Did Setsuko Hara also place great value on bonds between women in her personal life?

Kanno: The word is that she was the type that deeply value her trusted friendships. It seems this even extended to the female staff on set—who at the time were only found as script supervisors and “keppatsu,” who worked in what would today be considered hair and makeup. Almost immediately after her debut, Hara developed a close friendship with a hair and makeup artist named Sakae Nakao, and their relationship continued even after Hara retired.

Apparently there was talk about how incomprehensible it was in the movie business for a major star to be so close to an ordinary staff, but I find this to be quite telling of the kind of person that Setsuko Hara was.

Ditching the labels and preconceptions

── Setsuko Hara retired at age 42 and never returned to the screen. Why?

Kanno: There are several theories and endless speculation on this. It seems like 99 out of 100 people think it has something to do with her being ashamed of aging in the public eye. But I don’t think someone who insisted that charm was for other people to decide would be that concerned about their beauty fading with age.

However, Mariko Okada, Hara’s co-star in Ozu’s "Late Autumn" (1960), gave a reason that I sense is exactly in line with who Hara was: “It’s getting harder for her to perform on tatami mats*.” This was something that was reported in a special edition of "Asahi Weekly" in 2015 when Hara passed away.
*A traditional Japanese mat made of straw

Having the self-respect to quit over no longer being able to perform simple actions (like standing up and sitting down on tatami mats) the way she wanted to, seemed just like Setsuko Hara.

── Getting to know the kind of person Setsuko Hara was seems to bring new appreciation for her performances.

Kanno: Yes. I also think that new aspects of her appeal emerge as we watch her from the vantage point of different eras. When I presented the Noriko trilogy to some non-Japanese students in a college queer studies course, for example, some of them suggested that Noriko might be asexual or aromantic (Someone who does not experience sexual / romantic attraction towards others, or desire to have sexual / romantic relationships). When I heard that, I thought the perspective likely had some truth to it.

The subject of marriage is a persistent one in the Noriko trilogy, yet it, along with elements of romantic love, seems to sit awkwardly with the rest of the script. In "Early Summer", for example, Noriko, who has been indifferent to her family’s prodding to arrange a marriage, suddenly jumps at the chance to marry the son of a female neighbor when she gently suggests that a person like Noriko would be a welcome addition to their household. Noriko immediately backs out of a better arrangement already in progress. She patently refuses to listen to her family, who are initially shocked and outraged.

Younger generations probably see Setsuko Hara as a typical old-timey actress, but I think there are still many more potential interpretations to be discovered.

── Would you be willing to leave our readers with what you think are some of the best things about Setsuko Hara as a performing artist?

Kanno: As I’ve mentioned a few times before, Setsuko Hara is truly wonderful in Yasujiro Ozu’s films. But by no means is her acting career solely a product of her work with Ozu.

Ozu was able to bring out Hara’s incredible complexities in some ways, but she herself underwent the process of trial and error and created films with the directors. Directors aren’t in control of everything that happens in a film. I think Hara’s performances were one reason those works ended up being so masterful.

So I hope viewers will drop the labels and preconceptions as they open themselves to the variety of nuanced performances that Setsuko Hara has delivered.