Keiji Aoyama

Keita, who had been taken along as a cover for his father-in-law’s affair, was discovered by his new wife when she unexpectedly showed up while he was sharing a room with a geisha.

A traditional bar mistress in Kyoto clashes with her Tokyo rival.

A poisoned mandarin orange goes missing from a murder scene and suspicion falls on a pair of beautiful sisters.

A passionate singer who’s rough around the edges but has a warm heart; a kind-hearted, impoverished painter who devotes himself wholeheartedly; and a beautiful opera singer loved by both of them—the joys and sorrows of Asakusa during the golden age of opera.

An ominous skull at a wedding venue; a series of chilling, mysterious incidents befalling a wealthy man whose heads of the family have gone missing on their wedding nights; and a mysterious white-haired demon driven mad by revenge!

Ichikawa's 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic melodramas—and re-evaluate it as a tanbi-ha work of decadence, aestheticism, and intrigue. Ichikawa's film presents the tragic plot of the young geisha who is unable to enact her love for a man publicly in any way other than a histrionic story of torment, a heart-rending tale of lovers being crushed by fate. Instead, Ichikawa shows the contest of wills that transpires as two geisha, Oko and Kiyoha fight for the top spot in Nihonbashi, the pinnacle of the Tokyo geisha world. Nihonbashi is an elegant, if steely, exposition of manners. The young doctor, Shinzo Katsuragi, is the object of affection for both women, but appears to be more the choice reward for the plotting and thieving of these two early modern superwomen, than a lover they swoon over.