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. ...

, best known for the

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

trilogy ''

The Human Condition ''The Human Condition'', first published in 1958, is Hannah Arendt's account of how "human activities" should be and have been understood throughout Western history. Arendt is interested in the ''vita activa'' (active life) as contrasted with t ...

'' (1959–1961), the samurai films ''

Harakiri , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese Kanji#Readings, kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their Bushido, code of honour but was also practised b ...

'' (1962) and ''

Samurai Rebellion is a 1967 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The film is based on ''Hairyozuma shimatsu'', a short story by Yasuhiko Takiguchi. Film historian Donald Richie suggests an approximate translation for its original Japanese title, ...

'' (1967), and the horror anthology ''

Kwaidan is a Japanese word consisting of two kanji: 怪 (''kai'') meaning "strange, mysterious, rare, or bewitching apparition" and 談 (''dan'') meaning "talk" or "recited narrative". Overall meaning and usage In its broadest sense, ''kaidan'' refers ...

'' (1964). ''

Senses of Cinema ''Senses of Cinema'' is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, ''Senses of Cinema'' publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career ...

'' described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s."

Biography

Early life

Kobayashi was born in

Otaru is a city and port in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces Ishikari Bay and the Sea of Japan, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical buildings, Otaru is a popular tou ...

, then a small port on the island of

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, the son of a company employee. He was a second cousin of the actress and director

Kinuyo Tanaka was a Japanese actress and film director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 acting credits, but was best known for her 15 films with director Kenji Mizoguchi, such as ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952) and ''Ugetsu'' (1953). W ...

. In 1933 he entered

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

in Tokyo where he studied East Asian art and philosophy. He embarked on a career in film in 1941 as an apprentice director at

Shochiku () 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 all ...

Studios, but was drafted into the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

in January 1942 and sent to Manchuria. Kobayashi regarded himself as a pacifist and a socialist, and resisted by refusing promotion to a rank higher than

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

. In 1944 he was transferred to

Miyakojima is the largest and the most populous island among the Miyako Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Miyako Island is administered as part of the City of Miyakojima, which includes not only Miyako Island, but also five other populated islands. ...

in the Ryuku Islands, and was taken prisoner near the end of the war. Then he spent a year in a detention camp in

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

. After his release, in 1946, he returned to Shochiku as assistant to the director

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasu ...

Films

Kobayashi's directorial debut was in 1952 with ''Musuko no Seishun'' (''My Son's Youth''). From 1959 to 1961, Kobayashi directed ''

'' (1959–1961), a trilogy on the effects of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

on a Japanese

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

and socialist. The total length of the films is almost ten hours, which makes it one of the longest fiction films ever made for theatrical release. In 1962 he directed ''

'', which won the

Jury Prize A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England durin ...

at the

1963 Cannes Film Festival The 16th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 23 May 1963. The Palme d'Or went to the ''Il Gattopardo'' by Luchino Visconti. The festival opened with '' The Birds'', directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Jury The following people were appointed as the ...

. In 1964, Kobayashi made ''

'' (1964), his first color film, a collection of four ghost stories drawn from books by

Lafcadio Hearn , born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (; el, Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χέρν, Patríkios Lefkádios Chérn, Irish language, Irish: Pádraig Lafcadio O'hEarain), was an Irish people, Irish-Greeks, Greek-Japanese people, Japanese writer, t ...

. Kwaidan won the Special Jury Prize at the

1965 Cannes Film Festival The 18th Cannes Film Festival was held from 3 to 16 May 1965. Olivia de Havilland became the first woman president of the jury. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to ''The Knack …and How to Get It'' by Richard Lester. The f ...

, and received an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination for

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

. In 1968,

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary ''Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won t ...

and Kobayashi founded the directors group, ''Shiki no kai''-''The Four Horsemen Club'', in an attempt to create movies for younger generations. In 1969, he was a member of the jury at the

19th Berlin International Film Festival The 19th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 25 June – 6 July 1969. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Yugoslav film '' Rani radovi'' directed by Želimir Žilnik. Jury The following jury members were announced for the fes ...

. He was also a candidate for directing the Japanese sequences for ''

Tora! Tora! Tora! ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' ( ja, トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic film, epic war film that dramatizes the Empire of Japan, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, T ...

'' after Akira Kurosawa left the film. But instead

Kinji Fukasaku was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking," Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty yakuza films, typified by the ''Battles Without Honor ...

and Toshio Masuda were chosen. One of his grand projects was a film on

Yasushi Inoue was a Japanese writer of novels, short stories, poetry and essays, noted for his historical and autobiographical fiction. His most acclaimed works include '' The Bullfight'' (''Tōgyū'', 1949), ''The Roof Tile of Tempyō'' (''Tenpyō no iraka' ...

's novel about Buddhist China, ''Tun Huang'', which never came to fruition.

Filmography

References

External links

* *
Masaki Kobayashi movies at The Criterion Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kobayashi, Masaki 1916 births 1996 deaths People from Otaru Japanese film directors Japanese pacifists Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Samurai film directors Japanese socialists Imperial Japanese Army soldiers Japanese prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by the United States