Eiko Minami

Eiko Minami
Autographed photo, 1931
Born
Sakae Gosha

(1909-02-20)February 20, 1909
Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
DiedUnknown
OccupationsDancer, actress

Eiko Minami (南 栄子, Minami Eiko; February 20, 1909 – date of death unknown) was a Japanese dancer.[1][2][3]

Biography

Eiko Minami was born Sakae Gosha (五社 栄, Gosha Sakae)[3] in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture.[2] She joined the Shōchiku Gakugekibu theater revue in Osaka in 1923 as a member of its second class, where she learned the basics of dance under head instructor Rikuhei Umemoto (楳茂都陸平).[2] She also studied dance under the famous Russian ballerina Xenia Makletzova.[2][3] Throughout her career, Minami was active mainly on stage, performing solo dance recitals in venues across Japan and as part of theater companies throughout Asia.

She also appeared in films, with her best known role being that of a dancer in a mental hospital in Teinosuke Kinugasa's 1926 avant-garde classic A Page of Madness. Following this, she joined the Nikkatsu film studio in Kyoto,[2] making her second known film appearance in 1927's Tabigeinin, directed by Yutaka Abe and Yasunaga Higashibōjō. Tabigeinin is now lost and it is unknown what role she played in the film. That same year, she and four other Nikkatsu actresses cut their hair into a bob style, which caused a conflict with studio head Kōkyū Ikenaga, who forbade them from appearing in any further films unless they grew their hair back.[4] Minami remained with Nikkatsu as a dance instructor and choreographer, after which she moved to Tokyo to work as a dance instructor at Nihon Eiga Haiyū Gakkō,[3] an acting school founded in 1923 by Biyō Minaguchi (水口薇陽).[2]

In late 1928, she was on tour in Manchuria as a featured performer in Yoshiko Okada's theater company.[5] Around this time,[2] she rose to prominence with her stage show by performing the Charleston, which earned her the nickname Goddess of Ero (エロの女神, Ero no megami),[6] along with a positive mention in The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa.[7] In 1934, she opened the Minami Buyō Kenkyūsho, her own dance school where she taught students.[3] In 1939, she changed her stage name to Reiko Gosha (五社玲子),[8] while continuing to teach dance throughout wartime.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Ongaku Nenkan Shōwa 11 Nen ~ 13 Nenban. Dai Nippon Ongaku Kyōkaihen Kyōeki Shōsha.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Tokyo Maiyu Shimbunsha (1932). Daitōkyō no Gensei 大東京の現勢 [The Current Situation of Greater Tokyo] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tokyo Maiyu Shimbunsha. p. 207.
  3. ^ a b c d e 東京音楽協会 (Tōkyō Ongaku Kyōkai) (20 March 1935). 音楽年鑑 昭和10年版 [Music Yearbook: 1935 Edition] (in Japanese). 音楽世界社 (Ongaku Sekai Sha). p. 228.
  4. ^ Nishizawa, Sō (1980). 雑学歌謡昭和史 (in Japanese). Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbun-sha.
  5. ^ "岡田嘉子来る 來る卅一日午後六時乘込み 一日から大劇で開演". Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection. Dalian: Manshū Nippō. 29 October 1928. p. 2. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
  6. ^ Sugiyama, Chizu (1999). "1920年代の浅草における映画館アトラクションの舞踊" [Dance in Movie Theater Attractions in Asakusa in the 1920s] (PDF). Buyougaku (舞踊學) (in Japanese). 1999 (22). The Japanese Society for Dance Research (舞踊学会): 22. doi:10.11235/buyougaku1978.1999.20. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
  7. ^ Kawabata, Yasunari (2005). The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa. Translated by Freedman, Alisa. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-520-24182-4. The fourth and fifth performances of the Paramount Show at the Denkikan—though it was back in June, Haruno Yoshiko's jazz dance and Minami Eiko's Charleston seemed very 1930.
  8. ^ Dainippon Ongaku Kyōkai, ed. (1941). 音楽年鑑 昭和16年度 [Music Yearbook, 1941 edition] (in Japanese). Kyōeki Shōsha Shoten. p. 288.
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