was a Japanese film and stage

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

who contributed to the development of

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

and stage art in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Career

Born in

Ehime Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,334,841 and a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...

, Inoue first appeared on stage at age 17. Starting out in traveling theatrical troupes, he made his debut on the Tokyo stage in 1905 as a member of Hōyō Ii's troupe. He soon became a prominent performer in shinpa theater, and in 1910 founded the Shin Jidaigeki Kyōkai. He also started his own acting school in 1936 and was elected to the

Japan Art Academy is the highest-ranking official artistic organization in Japan. It is established as an extraordinary organ of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁, Bunkacho) in the thirty-first article of the law establishing the Ministry of ...

in 1949. Inoue was an early supporter of cinema and directed a reformist film, ''The Captain's Daughter'' (Taii no musume, 1917) for Kobayashi Shōkai, at the time of the Pure Film Movement. He is most famous in the West for his starring role in

Teinosuke Kinugasa was a Japanese filmmaker and actor. His best-known films include the Silent film, silent Experimental film, avant-garde films ''A Page of Madness'' and ''Crossroads (1928 film), Crossroads'' and the Academy Awards, Academy Award-winning historic ...

's experimental masterpiece ''

A Page of Madness is a 1926 Japanese Silent film, silent Experimental film, experimental Horror film, horror film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Lost film, Lost for 45 years until it was rediscovered by Kinugasa in his storehouse in 1971, the film is the produc ...

'' (1926), which he helped support by refusing payment for his services.

Selected filmography

As actor

* '' Kantsubaki'' (寒椿) (1921) * '' Aa mujō'' (噫無情) (1923) * '' Daichi wa hohoemu'' (大地は微笑む) (1925) * ''

'' (狂った一頁, Kurutta Ippēji or Kurutta Ichipeiji) (1926) * '' Kane no naru oka: Dai san hen, kuro no maki'' (鐘の鳴る丘第三篇クロの巻) (1949)

As director

* '' The Captain's Daughter'' (大尉の娘, Taii no musume) (1917)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inoue, Masao 1881 births 1950 deaths Japanese film directors Japanese male silent film actors 20th-century Japanese male actors Japanese male stage actors People from Ehime Prefecture Actors from Ehime Prefecture