was a Japanese

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

who played a central role in the development of the modern

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hel ...

and

samurai cinema , also commonly spelled "''chambara''", meaning "sword fighting" films,Hill (2002). denotes the Japanese film genre called samurai cinema in English and is roughly equivalent to Western and swashbuckler films. ''Chanbara'' is a sub-category of '' ...

Career

Born in

Ehime Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,342,011 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...

, Itō joined the actors school at

Shōchiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not ...

in 1920, but soon began writing screenplays under the recommendation of

Kaoru Osanai was a Japanese theater director, playwright, and actor central in the development of modern Japanese theater. Biography Kaoru Osanai was born on July 26, 1881, in Hiroshima, the second son of Director of Hiroshima Army Garrison Hospital, Take ...

. He made his directorial debut in 1924 at Teikoku Kinema with ''Shuchū nikki''. After trying to start his own production company, he settled at

Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...

and established his name in 1927 with the three-part ''

Chūji tabi nikki is a silent Japanese jidaigeki made in 1927 starring Denjirō Ōkōchi and directed by Daisuke Itō (film director), Daisuke Itō. It was originally released in three parts, all of which were long thought to be lost until portions of the second ...

'', which is considered one of the masterpieces of ''jidaigeki''. Especially in the

silent era A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

, he was known for a very mobile camera style that earned him the nickname "Idō daisuki" (Loves Motion), which is a pun on his name. The heroes of his films, such as

Tange Sazen Tange may refer to: People: *Arthur Tange (1914–2001), Australian senior public servant * Jun Watanabe Tange or Watanabe Jun (born 1954), Japanese architect, former professor at Chubu University *Kenzo Tange (1913–2005), Japanese architect, win ...

and

Kunisada Chūji was a popular figure in the Edo period. He was a bakuto (gamblers commonly seen as forerunners to the modern yakuza). His story is mainly responsible for the romanticised "chivalrous bandit" or "Robin Hood" image in Japan. An example was when ...

, were often disaffected, nihilistic loners and thus Itō's early films were sometimes considered

tendency films is a genre of socially conscious, left-leaning films produced in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s. Tendency films reflected a perceived leftward shift in Japanese society in the aftermath of the 1927 Shōwa financial crisis. Japan's left-wing lit ...

. He was criticized, however, for being more of a stylist than a thematically committed filmmaker. While being a director who was less successful after the coming of sound, Itō worked with many great ''jidaigeki'' stars, especially

Denjirō Ōkōchi was a Japanese people, Japanese film actor best known for starring roles in jidaigeki directed by leading Japanese filmmakers. Early life and family Ōkōchi was born Masuo Ōbe on February 5, 1898, in Ōkōchi, Iwaya (present-day Ōkōchi, Buz ...

Yorozuya Kinnosuke (November 20, 1932 – March 10, 1997) was a Japanese kabuki actor. Born , son of kabuki actor Nakamura Tokizō III, he entered kabuki and became the first in the kabuki tradition to take the name Nakamura Kinnosuke. He took on his guild name (''y ...

, Raizō Ichikawa, and

Tsumasaburō Bandō was one of the most prominent Japanese actors of the twentieth century. Famous for his rebellious, sword fighting roles in many jidaigeki silent films, he rose to fame after joining the Tōjiin Studio of Makino Film Productions in Kyoto in ...

at studios such as

and

Daiei , based in Kobe, Hyōgo, Kobe, is one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan. In 1957, Isao Nakauchi founded the chain in Osaka near Sembayashi Station on the Keihan train line. Daiei is now under a restructuring process supported by Maruben ...

, in a career that spanned nearly half a century. In 1991, a partial print of ''Chūji tabi nikki'', long considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

, was discovered and screened for the public.

Selected filmography

* ''Chōkon'' (長恨) (1926) * ''

'' (忠次旅日記) (1927) * ''Shinpan Ōoka seidan'' (新版大岡政談) (1928) * ''Chikemuri Takadanobaba'' (血煙高田馬場) (1929) * ''Zanjin zanbaken'' (斬人斬馬剣) (1928) *'' Jirokichi the Rat'' (御誂治郎吉格子 Oatsurae Jirōkichi kōshi ) (1931) *'' Ōshō'' (王将) (1948) *'' The Gay Masquerade'' (弁天小僧 Benten Kozō) (1958) *''

Scar Yosaburo is a 1960 Japanese chambara ("sword-fighting") film directed by Daisuke Itō starring Raizo Ichikawa, originally released by Daiei Film (now known as Kadokawa Pictures). Plot The film depicts the scarring of Yosaburo (Raizo Ichikawa) at the ...

'' (切られ与三郎 Kirare Yosaburō) (1960) *''

Hatamoto Gurentai is a 1961 Japanese jidaigeki film written by Daisuke Ito and directed by Seiichi Fukuda. Hatamoto Gurentai was adapted from the novel ''Okubo Hikozaemon'' written by Genzō Murakami. Masakazu Tamura made his acting debut in the film. Cast *Sourc: ...

'' (1960) (screenplay) *''

Hangyakuji Hangyakuji ( ja, 反逆児, ''The Conspirator'') is a 1961 Japanese historical-fiction film directed by Daisuke Ito. It features Kinnosuke Yorozuya, Kaneko Iwasaki, and Tsukie Matsuura. Plot Saburo Nobuyasu, a young king, has trouble finding ...

'' (反逆児) (1961) *''

Bakumatsu was the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government ...

'' (1970)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Daisuke Japanese film directors Samurai film directors 1898 births 1981 deaths People from Uwajima, Ehime Silent film directors Silent film screenwriters 20th-century Japanese screenwriters