was a prominent Japanese

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

. His real name was .''Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten'' article "Hijikata Yoshi". 2007. Britannica Japan Co.'' MyPedia'' article "Hijikata Yoshi". 2007. Hitachi Systems & Services.''Digital Daijisen'' entry "Hijikata Yoshi". Shōgakukan. He studied at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

.''Britannica Kokusai Dai-hyakkajiten'' states that he graduated from the University of Tokyo; ''MyPedia'' that he dropped out of the university Japanese literature faculty. He had Marxist leanings, and in 1933 traveled to Russia. On his return to Japan in 1941 he was arrested, and remained in prison until 1945.Keene, Donald. 1998. ''Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era (Fiction)''. Columbia University Press. Page 899 (note 3). In 1946 he joined the

Japanese Communist Party The is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left List of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing Communis ...

. He was a grandson of the Meiji politician

Hijikata Hisamoto Count was a Japanese politician and cabinet minister of the Meiji period. Biography Hijikata was a samurai in Tosa Domain (modern-day Kōchi Prefecture). He was sent by the domain to Edo for studies, where he became involved in the ''sonn ...

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Japanese theatre directors 1898 births 1959 deaths {{Japan-bio-stub