Ayame Mizushima

Biography

Ayame Mizushima (17 June 1903 – 31 December 1990) was the pen name of Japanese novelist and screenwriter Chitose Takano, commonly referred to as the first woman to have received on-screen credit in Japan. In 1916 (at the age of thirteen), Takano was introduced to Nobuko Yoshiya, a successful novelist who specialized in serialized romance novels and is known as a pioneer of Japanese lesbian literature. Yoshiya's serials inspired her to write, and she began contributing to newspapers and magazines at the age of fourteen. Takano adopted her pen name upon the release of The Song of the Fallen Leaves, for which she wrote the script, in order to avoid expulsion from the Japan Women's University, which prohibited women from viewing films (much less partaking in their production). She worked at the Shochiku Studios and is credited with twenty-nine screenplays. In 1928, she wrote the screenplay for Sora No Kanata (Beyond the Sky), based on the novel by Nobuko Yoshiya. Her last film, Kagayate Shonen Nihon (Shine On! Boy Japan) (1935), was her first and only talkie. She then retired to become a children's writer.