Films: my Ikigai, my reason for living
They gave true purpose to this silent lady
The first the Land of The Rising Sun would bring

My work ethics were far from being shady
I was the eldest daughter of six siblings
In the old capital I was a baby

Kyoto was Japan’s Hollywood in billings
My father was tied to the film industry
The screening room was part of my beginnings

For us it was a frequent activity
I was charmed by the yūgen of these pictures
That fine grace that kept me in captivity

I loved studying but I had saboteurs
My stepmother forced me to quit college soon
She thought it convenient to work indoors

An educated woman was a buffoon
It was arranged for me to become a wife
At twenty-one I had tied the knot to attune

But four years later I took hold of my life
My husband betrayed me and I divorced him
I returned to my parents’ home with no strife

Finally my Big Bang, it was not a whim
I no longer was a man’s accessory
For a high class woman working was not prim

I pursued my own kind of exemplary
I was determined to be self-reliant
Papa helped me find my new trajectory

I assisted a cinematic giant
Kenji Mizoguchi was a film master
With his wife Chieko I was compliant

With them I learnt how to make movies faster
Through cinema we expressed Ishin-Denshin
This unspoken connection was our plaster

On set I took multiple tasks to begin
To do so the kimono wasn’t practical
Therefore I wore trousers while people would grin

Blending in this male-workplace was tactical
I joined Mizoguchi’s transfer to Tokyo
My approach to movies was pragmatical

My directorial launch was about to glow
But colleagues got jealous of my ambition
My promotion was compromised by my foe

Sabotaging me became their sole mission
They invented an affair with my Sensei
I rose from the ashes of opposition

Back to Kyoto with my mentor was the way
To direct at last my first film, New Clothing
Kosugi Tengai’s book became cine-play

A singular romance I was disclosing
Between a future geisha and Buddhist priest
A female film director was imposing

My private life was slandered to say the least
I went back to being Mizoguchi’s aide
The second warfare arrived in the Far East

Censorship prevailed, but I was not afraid
I left my guru to form my own project
Telling the Ainu story was my crusade

I wanted to express my utter respect
To this indigenous minority group
The nation’s policies it did not reflect

Nihon did not allow you to break the loop
So, The Manchuria Film Association
Is where I worked, in the education troop

Chinese women were target of formation
During my four years there, fourteen films I made
For Sino-Japanese appreciation

Settling in Manchuria I would persuade
Then came the Asian Pacific War defeat
Those kind of documentaries had to fade

At the Chinese Studio I took a seat
I was a simple cinema craftsperson
I returned to my homeland with no drumbeat

I thought it was time for my self-assertion
It was the autumn of 1946
I was overpowered by disconcertion

I could not direct for the new politics
A college degree was obligatory
These were the rules of my country I couldn’t fix

Mizoguchi greeted me with no glory
Years before I left his team, he had proposed
I saw it as a mere act of vainglory

His wife was in hospital and I opposed I
did not foresee me needing his support
He was unemotional, yet well-disposed

I was part of the past, no future consort
He had a mistress and someone like a spouse
Being his script clerk was my only passport

To return actively in the movie house
At forty-two this fate was my kintsugi
The golden repair was this abrupt rehouse

I retired from that life eventually
In my fifties I was freelancing with bliss
I kept the tradition of rice and green tea

But some societal norms I did dismiss
Tazuko Sakane embraced queerness freely
I helped feminism rise from Japan’s abyss

Until 1953 I was surely
The only woman to direct in Nippon
When Tanaka Kinuyo began shyly

I feel close to the cinephiles who move on
I sense aidagara through motion pictures
We are united by the film reel proton.