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, ...

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. ...

, and a pioneer of the '' shomin-geki'' (common people drama) genre at the Shōchiku studios in pre-

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Japan.

Biography

Shimazu was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, 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 is an international department store chain with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. It is a subsidiary of Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, which also owns the Isetan department store chain. History It was founded in 1673 with the (shop name) , sel ...

department store in

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The curre ...

. Shimazu entered Shōchiku in 1920 after answering an advertisement and began training under Kaoru Osanai. He gave his debut as director in 1921 at Shōchiku's recently established Kamata studio, directing both comedy and melodrama films, often depicting the everyday life of the lower middle classes. ''Our Neighbor, Miss Yae'' (1934) and ''A Brother and His Younger Sister'' (1939) are regarded as his most exemplary and best films. By the end of the 1930s, he moved to Tōhō studios, where he made some films in cooperation with the

Manchuria Film Association or (Chinese: 株式會社滿洲映畫協會) was a Empire of Japan, Japanese film studio in Manchukuo during the 1930s and 1940s. Background Man'ei was established by the Kwantung Army in the occupied northeast part of China in 1937. Man'ei co ...

. He died of cancer just after the war ended. Many famous directors, such as Heinosuke Gosho, Shirō Toyoda, Kōzaburō Yoshimura, and

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 ...

, started their careers as his assistant.

Selected filmography

*1930: ''The Belle'' (麗人, ''Reijin'') *1931: ''Lifeline ABC'' (生活線ＡＢＣ, ''Seikatsusen ABC'') *1932: ''First Steps Ashore'' (上陸第一歩, ''Jōriku dai ippo'') *1934: ''Our Neighbor, Miss Yae'' (隣の八重ちゃん, ''Tonari no Yae-chan'') *1935: ''Okoto and Sasuke'' (春琴抄　お琴と佐助, ''Shunkinsho: Okoto to Sasuke'') *1936: ''Family Meeting'' (家族会議, ''Kazoku kaigi'') *1937: ''Three Crows' Engagement'' (婚約三羽烏, ''Kon'yaku sanbagarasu'') *1937: ''The Lights of Asakusa'' (浅草の灯, ''Asakusa no hi'') *1939: ''A Brother and His Younger Sister'' (兄とその妹, ''Ani to soto imōto'') *1940: ''

Totsugu hi made is a 1940 Japanese drama and romance film directed by Yasujirō Shimazu. Cast * Setsuko Hara as Yoshiko * Yōko Yaguchi as Asako * Sadako Sawamura as Maki Tsuneko * Kō Mihashi as Mitsuzou * Haruko Sugimura was a Japanese stage and film ...

'' (嫁ぐ日まで)

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shimazu, Yasujiro Japanese film directors 1897 births 1945 deaths People from Tokyo Silent film directors 20th-century Japanese screenwriters Deaths from cancer in Japan