Yasujirō Shimazu

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Yasujirō Shimazu
Yasujiro Shimazu.jpg
Yasujirō Shimazu in 1939
Born(1897-06-03)June 3, 1897
Tokyo, Japan
DiedSeptember 18, 1945(1945-09-18) (aged 48)
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter
Years active1920–1944

Yasujirō Shimazu (島津 保次郎, Shimazu Yasujirō, 3 June 1897  18 September 1945) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, and a pioneer of the shōshimin-eiga (common people drama) genre at the Shōchiku studios in pre-World War II Japan. [1]

Contents

Biography

Shimazu was born in Tokyo, [a] the second son of merchant Otojirō Shimazu. His father owned a long-established seaweed business named Kōshū-ya directly in front of the main Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi. [4]

Shimazu entered Shōchiku in 1920 after answering an advertisement and began training under Kaoru Osanai. [3] He gave his debut as director in 1921 at Shōchiku's recently established Kamata studio, [3] directing both comedy and melodrama films, often depicting the everyday life of the lower middle classes. [1] Our Neighbor, Miss Yae (1934) and A Brother and His Younger Sister (1939) are regarded as his most exemplary and best films. [1] [5] By the end of the 1930s, he moved to Tōhō studios, where he made some films in cooperation with the Manchuria Film Association. [6] He died of cancer just after the war ended. [2] Many famous directors, such as Heinosuke Gosho, Shirō Toyoda, Kōzaburō Yoshimura, and Keisuke Kinoshita, started their careers as his assistant. [1]

Selected filmography

Notes

  1. Depending on the source, either in Kanda [2] or in Nihonbashi [3] district.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. pp. 264–268. ISBN   978-1-933330-53-2.
  2. 1 2 "島津 保次郎 (Shimazu Yasujiro)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "島津 保次郎 (Shimazu Yasujirō)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  4. Otake, Toru (1979). 個人別領域別談話集錄による映画史体系. Nihon University, Faculty of Art, Department of Cinema (日本大学芸術学部映画学科). p. 6.
  5. Anderson, Joseph L.; Richie, Donald (1959). The Japanese Film – Art & Industry. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company.
  6. Yamane, Sadao (1997). "Shimazu Yasujirō". Nihon eiga jinmei jiten: Kantoku hen (in Japanese). Kinema Junpō. pp. 404–406. ISBN   4-87376-208-1.

Bibliography