"The Woman in the Rumor" (噂の女), Original Japanese Daiei Ad Book Exhibitor Display Poster 1954, Kenji Mizoguchi, 36 × 33 cm M199

This is an original double-sided Japanese exhibitor display poster produced for the first release of Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Woman in the Rumor (噂の女, Uwasa no Onna) in 1954.

Measuring approximately 36 × 33 cm, it is not a standard theatrical poster. It is an original double-page promotional sheet from DAIEI AD BOOK No. 442, an industry publication prepared for cinema exhibitors. The identification is printed discreetly along the lower margin of the colour artwork.

These trade publications supplied theatre managers with official imagery, cast and production information, plot summaries, publicity language and ready-prepared advertising material. The colour side could also function as a compact display image and poster, while the reverse provided the practical information required to promote the film locally. As ephemeral working material, surviving Daiei Ad Book sheets from the 1950s are considerably scarcer than conventional printed programmes.

Film background

Released by Daiei on 20 June 1954, The Woman in the Rumor was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, with a screenplay by Yoshikata Yoda and Masashige Narusawa, cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa and music by Toshiro Mayuzumi.

The film belongs to an extraordinary period in Mizoguchi’s career. During 1954, he also released Sansho the Bailiff and The Crucified Lovers. Unlike those historical dramas, The Woman in the Rumor is a contemporary gendai-geki examining the position of women in postwar Japanese society.

The story takes place in Kyoto’s historic Shimabara licensed quarter, where the widowed Hatsuko Mabuchi, played by Kinuyo Tanaka, operates a traditional house for tayū courtesans. Her educated daughter Yukiko, played by Yoshiko Kuga, returns from Tokyo after attempting suicide when her fiancé rejects her because of her mother’s profession.

Yukiko initially regards the house and its inhabitants with disgust. Her outlook gradually changes as she witnesses the economic circumstances that have brought its women there. Further conflict develops when Yukiko becomes close to the young physician Kenji Matoba, played by Tomoemon Ōtani—the same man her mother hopes to marry.

Through this triangle, Mizoguchi examines generational conflict, romantic betrayal, economic dependence and the social hypocrisy surrounding women’s labour and sexuality. The film was also the fifteenth and final collaboration between Mizoguchi and Kinuyo Tanaka, one of the defining director–actor partnerships of Japan’s cinematic golden age.

Promotional design

The colour front is an exceptionally stylish example of 1950s Japanese studio publicity design. Its palette of pale mint green, soft pink, deep red and black is divided through sweeping geometric forms and halftone photographic imagery.

A monumental portrait of Yoshiko Kuga as Yukiko fills the right side. Her solemn, inward-looking expression immediately establishes the character’s emotional isolation. On the left, Kinuyo Tanaka as Hatsuko appears in traditional dress and glasses, creating a direct visual opposition between mother and daughter, tradition and modernity.

Below them, a dramatic monochrome vignette shows Yukiko struggling with Dr. Matoba, foreshadowing the romantic and psychological conflict at the centre of the story. The Japanese title 噂の女 is printed across the upper section in enormous blood-red brush lettering, while the prominent credit 監督 溝口健二 announces Mizoguchi’s authorship.

The reverse reveals the sheet’s original trade function. It contains the film’s production intentions, staff and cast lists, synopsis, promotional strategy, suggested advertising copy and broadcast material. The section headed 文案 supplied exhibitors with ready-written publicity language, while additional areas offered information that could be adapted for newspaper advertisements, cinema announcements and local promotional campaigns.

This combination of visually accomplished front artwork and practical studio material makes the piece more than a miniature poster. It is a surviving document of how Daiei marketed a Mizoguchi film to Japanese cinemas and audiences in 1954.

This piece is in excellent condition. The front retains strong, attractive colours and presents beautifully. The original publication folds remain visible, together with only minor handling and age-related wear consistent with its original format. The reverse is clean and highly legible, preserving its extensive exhibitor information particularly well (please refer to imagery of both sides of the exact piece for sale).

It is over 72 years old.

It is not a reproduction or a reprint.

Certificate of Authenticity included.