was a Japanese actor and film director.

Career

Born in

Ishinomaki is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 138,538, and a population density of 250 persons per km2 in 61,919 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Ishinomaki is in northeastern Miya ...

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

, Kosugi first studied at the Nihon Eiga Haiyū Gakkō before joining the

Nikkatsu is a Japanese film studio located in Bunkyō. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Motion Pictures". Shareholders are Nippon Television Holdings (35%) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (28.4%). ...

studio in 1925. He came to prominence in

tendency film was a genre of socially conscious, left-leaning films produced in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s. Tendency films reflected a perceived leftward shift in Japanese society in the aftermath of the 1927 Shōwa financial crisis. Notable examples o ...

s such as '' Ikeru ningyō'' (1929). He was the lead player in a series of critically acclaimed realist films made at Nikkatsu's Tamagawa studio in the 1930s, particularly

Tomu Uchida , born Tsunejirō Uchida, was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Uchida chose the stage name Tomu, a transliteration of the English Tom, written in Kanji characters meaning "to spit out dreams". Biography Early career After leaving junio ...

's '' Jinsei gekijō'' (1936) and '' Tsuchi'' (1939) and

Tomotaka Tasaka was a Japanese film director. Career Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, he began working at Nikkatsu's Kyoto studio in 1924 and eventually came to prominence for a series of realist, humanist films made at Nikkatsu's Tamagawa studio in the late 19 ...

's war films, '' Gonin no sekkōhei'' (1938) and '' Mud and Soldiers'' (1939). In 1937, he starred in the German-Japanese co-production, '' Atarashiki tsuchi'' (aka ''Die Tochter des Samurai''), directed by

Arnold Fanck Arnold Fanck (6 March 1889 – 28 September 1974) was a German film director and pioneer of the mountain film genre. He is best known for the extraordinary alpine footage he captured in such films as '' The Holy Mountain'' (1926), '' The White H ...

and Mansaku Itami. He was renowned at the time as a skilled actor with an individual style. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he moved into directing, working primarily at Nikkatsu, where he filmed comedy series and action films starring

Jō Shishido was a Japanese actor recognizable for his intense, eccentric yakuza film roles. He appeared in some 300 films but is best known in the West for his performance in the cult film ''Branded to Kill'' (1967). In Japan, he is also known by the nickna ...

, while still appearing in films as an actor. His son was the composer Taichirō Kosugi, who did the music for ''

Cyborg 009 is a Japanese science fiction manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori. It was serialized in many different Japanese magazines, including '' Monthly Shōnen King'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'', '' Shōnen Big Comic'', '' COM'', ' ...

''.

Selected filmography

As actor

* ''

Tokyo March is a 1929 Japanese silent drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It is one of the left-leaning " tendency films" Mizoguchi made in the late 1920s. Only a fragment of the film exists today. Plot Michiyo, an orphan and factory working girl, li ...

'' (東京行進曲, Tōkyō kōshinkyoku) (1929) * '' Ikeru ningyō'' (生ける人形) (1929) * '' Jinsei gekijō'' (人生劇場) (1936) * '' The Daughter of the Samurai'' (新しき土) (1937) * ''

Kagirinaki Zenshin is a 1937 Japanese drama film by Tomu Uchida based on an original idea by Yasujirō Ozu. Plot The protagonist, Tokumaru, is laid off from his corporate job. Unable to accept this, he convinces himself that he has actually been promoted instead. ...

'' (1937) * '' Gonin no sekkōhei'' (五人の斥候兵) (1938) * '' Robō no ishi'' (路傍の石) (1938) * '' Tsuchi'' (土) (1939) * '' Mud and Soldiers'' (土と兵隊) (1939) * '' The 47 Ronin'' (元禄忠臣蔵, Genroku chushingura) (1941/1942) * '' I Am Waiting'' (俺は待ってるぜ, Ore wa matteru ze) (1957) * '' Jazz musume tanjō'' (ジャズ娘誕生, Jazu musume tanjō) (1957) * '' A Slope in the Sun'' (陽のあたる坂道, Hi no ataru sakamichi) (1958)

As director

* '' Jiruba no tetsu'' (ジルバの鉄) (1950)—screenplay by

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

* '' Tokyo gorin ondo'' (東京五輪音頭) (1964) * '' Abare Kishidō'' (あばれ騎士道) (1965)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kosugi, Isamu 1904 births 1983 deaths Japanese male silent film actors Japanese film directors People from Ishinomaki 20th-century Japanese male actors Actors from Miyagi Prefecture