was a Japanese screenwriter most famous for collaborating with

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...

on many of the director's films. Born in

Hakodate is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 279,851 with 143,221 households, and a population density of 412.8 ...

, Noda was the son of the head of the local tax bureau and younger brother to Kyūho, a

Nihonga ''Nihonga'' (, "Japanese-style paintings") are Japanese paintings from about 1900 onwards that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials. While based on traditions over a thousand years ...

painter. He moved to

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

after completing elementary school and later went to

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

. After graduating, he worked for the city of Tokyo while also serving as a reporter for '' Katsudō kurabu'', one of the major film magazines, using the pen name Harunosuke Midorikawa. On the recommendation of a scriptwriter friend from junior high, Takashi Oda, he joined the script department 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 ...

after the Great Kantō earthquake. He soon became one of the studio's central screenwriters, penning for instance '' Aizen katsura'' (1938), one of its biggest prewar hits. He is most known for his collaborations with Ozu, which began with Noda supplying the script for the director's first feature '' Sword of Penitence'' (1927) and led to such postwar works as ''

Tokyo Story is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama about an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. Upon release, it did not immediately gain international recogni ...

'' (1953), regarded by many critics as one of the greatest films of all time. He co-wrote thirteen of Ozu's fifteen postwar films. When the Writers Association of Japan was formed in 1950, Noda served as its first chair.

Selected filmography

References

External links

Noda Kōgo's grave
''Rekishi ga nemuru Tama Reien'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Noda, Kogo 1893 births 1968 deaths People from Hakodate Waseda University alumni 20th-century Japanese screenwriters