Shinobu Hashimoto ( ja, 橋本忍, ''Hashimoto Shinobu''; 18 April 1918 – 19 July 2018) was a Japanese screenwriter, film director and producer. A frequent collaborator of

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 ...

, he wrote the scripts for such internationally acclaimed films as ''

Rashomon is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori (actor), Masayuki Mori, and ...

'' and ''

Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who hire seven ...

''.

Early life

Shinobu Hashimoto was born in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan on 18 April 1918. In 1938 he enlisted in the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, but became ill with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

while still training and spent four years in a veterans' sanitarium.

Career

While hospitalized, another patient gave Hashimoto a film magazine. The magazine sparked his interest in screenwriting and he began a screenplay about his army experience, spending three years on the project. Hashimoto was a frequent collaborator with

, from 1950 to 1970 writing eight screenplays Kurosawa directed. He often worked with

Hideo Oguni was a Japanese writer who wrote over 100 screenplays. He is best known for co-writing screenplays for a number of films directed by Akira Kurosawa, including '' Ikiru'', ''The Seven Samurai'', ''Throne of Blood'' and '' The Hidden Fortress''. ...

Ryūzō Kikushima was a Japanese writer and film producer who is best known for co-writing the screenplays for several Akira Kurosawa films, including ''Throne of Blood'', ''The Hidden Fortress'', ''Yojimbo'' and '' High and Low''. He also produced several of Ku ...

as well as Kurosawa himself on the scripts for those projects. Hashimoto won numerous awards for his writing, including a succession of

Blue Ribbon Awards The are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan. The awards were established in 1950 by which is composed of film correspondents from seven Tokyo-based sports newspapers. In 1961, the six major Japanes ...

and

Mainichi Film Awards The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. Hashimoto wrote more than eighty screenplays, including ''

'', ''

Ikiru is a 1952 Japanese drama film directed and co-written (with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni) by Akira Kurosawa. The film examines the struggles of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat (played by Takashi Shimura) and his final quest for meaning. ...

'', ''

'' (1950), ''

Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'' from Medieval Scotland to feudal Ja ...

'' (a 1957 adaptation of ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'' set in Japan), and ''

The Hidden Fortress is a 1958 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' adventure film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It tells the story of two peasants who agree to escort a man and a woman across enemy lines in return for gold without knowing that he is a general and the woman is a pri ...

'' (1958). He also directed three films. Achieving international acclaim, Hashimoto's scripts inspired notable films abroad, including ''

The Magnificent Seven ''The Magnificent Seven'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges. The screenplay by William Roberts is a remake – in an Old West–style – of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film '' Seven Samurai'' (itself initially relea ...

'' (1960 and then remade again in 2016), a remake of ''Seven Samurai'', and ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' (1977), which George Lucas has described as inspired by ''The Hidden Fortress.'' In 2006, he authored a memoir entitled ''Compound Cinematics: Akira Kurosawa and I''. In 2008, Hashimoto wrote a screenplay for ''

I Want to Be a Shellfish I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

'', a second full-length film adaptation of the

post-World War II The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of a new era started in late 1945 (when World War II ended) for all countries involved, defined by the decline of all colonial empires and simultaneous rise of two superpowers; the Soviet Union (US ...

-based television series he wrote for

Tokyo Broadcasting System Television JORX-DTV, branded as is the flagship station of the Japan News Network (JNN), owned-and-operated by , a subsidiary of JNN's owner, TBS Holdings. It operates in the Kantō region and broadcasts its content nationally through TBS-JNN Networ ...

in 1958.

Later life and death

Hashimoto turned 100 in April 2018. He died in Tokyo on 19 July 2018 at the age of 100. In a tribute article for TIME magazine, film director

Antoine Fuqua Antoine Fuqua (born May 30, 1965) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the action and thriller genres. He was originally known as a director of music videos, and made his film debut in 1998 with ''The Replacement Killers''. His critica ...

expressed his respect for Hashimoto as a screenwriter stating: "(Hashimoto's) … working with

and

, was so beautiful and poetic and powerful and heartbreaking. It was all about justice, it was all about sacrifice, and it made me want to be one of those guys".

Awards and honors

* 1950:

Blue Ribbon Award for Best Screenplay The Blue Ribbon Award for Best Screenplay is a prize recognizing the work of a screenplay of a Japanese film. It was awarded annually by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists as one of the Blue Ribbon Awards. It was lastly awarded in 1966 at ...

for ''

'' * 1952:

Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay The Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay is a film award given at the Mainichi Film Awards. Award Winners References {{film-award-stub Screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 Jul ...

for ''

'' * 1956: Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for ''

Mahiru no ankoku is a 1956 Japanese drama film directed by Tadashi Imai. It is based on an actual court case, described in the non-fiction book "Saibankan–Hito no inochi wa kenryoku de ubaeru mono ka" by attorney Hiroshi Masaki. Cast * Kōjirō Kusanagi * Sac ...

'' * 1956: Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Screenplay for ''Mahiru no ankoku'' * 1958: Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for '' Summer Clouds'', ''

Stakeout Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

'' and ''

Night Drum is a 1958 Japanese historical drama film directed by Tadashi Imai. It was written by Kaneto Shindo and Shinobu Hashimoto, based on the 1706 play ''Horikawa nami no tsuzumi'' by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. Film historians regard ''Night Drum'' as one of ...

'' * 1958: Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Screenplay for ''Summer Clouds'' and ''Stakeout'' * 1958:

Kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

's Best Screenwriter Award for ''

'' * 1960: Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for ''Black Art Book'' ( :ja:黒い画集) * 1962: Blue Ribbon Award for Best Screenplay for ''

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

'' * 1966: Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for ''

Shiroi Kyotō is a 1965 novel by Toyoko Yamasaki. It has been adapted into a film in 1966 and then five times as a television series in 1967, 1978, 1990, 2003, and 2019. The 1966 film was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a S ...

'' * 1974: Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay for ''

Castle of Sand is a 1974 Japanese police procedural film directed by Yoshitarō Nomura, based on the novel '' Suna no Utsuwa'' by Seicho Matsumoto. Plot Yoshitaro Nomura's 1974 film of Seicho Matsumoto's immensely popular detective story tells the tale of two ...

'' * 2015:

Mainichi Film Award The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

Special Prize for screenwriting

Filmography

Hashimoto is credited in the making of at least 85 films.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hashimoto, Shinobu 1918 births 2018 deaths Japanese centenarians Japanese screenwriters Male screenwriters Writers from Hyōgo Prefecture Deaths from pneumonia in Japan Men centenarians Imperial Japanese Army personnel