KYOTO, Japan, March 26 (UPI) -- Yachiyo Inoue, an expert in the traditional Kyomai dance who won the Japan Art Academy Award in 1952, died Friday at her home in Kyoto at the age of 98.
Designated a living national treasure in 1955, she was the fourth head of the Inoue School of Kyomai (traditional Kyoto-style dance), the Daily Yomiuri reported.
The Inoue School of Kyomai dance developed from a court-style room dance of the Edo period (1603-1868) and a jiutamai dance originating in Kyoto and Osaka.
Inoue was adopted by Yachiyo Inoue III when she was 3-years-old and made her first stage appearance two years later, performing "Shichifukujin" (seven deities of good fortune), the newspaper said.
She became an accredited master of the school at age 15.
As an assistant teacher at a school in Higashiyama Ward, she began teaching dance in 1923.
She was recommended to be acting head of the Inoue School of kyomai dance after her predecessor died in 1938 and succeeded to the name Yachiyo Inoue IV in 1947.
A public memorial service was pending.
