Tanaka had a very difficult childhood; her father passed away when she was 3, her family’s business went bankrupt, one of her brothers died of pneumonia, and she barely passed her first year of elementary school despite contracting measles. She learned to play the biwa (a traditional Japanese instrument), and at age 11 she joined the school opera company. When the company disbanded three years later, her mother was persuaded to let Tanaka pursue acting.

Thanks to her looks and her relationships with talented directors, Tanaka became a child celebrity as early as 16 years old. She played prominently in Heinosuke Gosho’s Intimate Dream (1927), and later appeared in Gosho’s The Neighbor’s Wife and Mine (1931), Japan’s first talking picture. She headlined Flower in Storm (1938) with actor Ken Uehara; the film would go on to become Japan’s highest grossing film of the prewar era, and spawn four sequels. Beginning in 1940 she began appearing in films for director Kenji Mizoguchi; they would collaborate on 15 films during the course of her career.

In 1949 Tanaka travelled to the United States as a goodwill ambassador, meeting with the likes of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. On her return in 1950 she appeared in The Munekata Sisters ( for Yasujiro Ozu and An Engagement Ring for Keisuke Kinoshita, neither of which were successful, and damaged her reputation. She recovered in 1952 when she starred in The Life of Oharu for Mizoguchi, which took the international prize at the Venice International Film Festival. She directed her first film, Love Letter, in 1953. She began developing a second film in 1955, but encountered resistance from Mizoguchi who, as president of the Directors Guild, contradicted a recommendation to give her the director’s chair on that film. Tanaka persevered and finished the film (Tsuki no Noborinu), but the experience marked the end of her relationship with Mizoguchi.

Tanaka won a Best Actress award from Kinema Junpo for appearing in The Ballad of Narayama (1958). After starring in Red Beard (1965) for Akira Kurosawa, Tanaka retired from acting to tend to her brother suffering from Parkinson’s disease. She was awarded the Medal of Honor, Purple Ribbon in 1970. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd Class in 1977.