C. Taka

Miss C. Taka, a Japanese actress, played the part of O San, a dancer, in the 1911 release of The East and the West. Aaron Cohen, who has studied Japanese actors and actresses of the silent film era, has suggested that C. Taka may be the same person as Tokuko (Taku) Takagi (see biographical entry under that name). Miss Takagi’s biography, written by Mrs. Teruko Yoshitake, was published in 1985 by the Bungei Shunju company. The title of the work translates into English as Die Dancing; Tokuko Takagi, Queen of the Musicals. This work states that Tokuko Takagi and her husband, Chimpei, worked three months with Thanhouser in a “tourism film” about Japan, after which she made three other films for Thanhouser. If the “tourism film” intended is The East and the West, then this confirms the Taka-Takagi connection.