was a Japanese

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

Biography

Born in

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

, he joined the Shōchiku studio in 1929. He debuted as director with a short film in 1934, but, after being denied a promotion by head of the studio Shirō Kido, continued working as an assistant director for filmmakers

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese filmmaker. 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 the 1930s. The most pr ...

and Yasujirō Shimazu on films like '' Our Neighbor, Miss Yae'' and '' What Did the Lady Forget?'' It was the 1939 film ''Warm Current'' that established his status as a director. During the Sino-Japanese war he directed a number of military dramas such as '' The Story of Tank Commander Nishizumi'' (1940), for which he toured the actual battlefields in China. Yoshimura's 1947 '' The Ball at the Anjo House'', starring Setsuko Hara, was named the best picture of the year by film magazine '' Kinema Junpo'' and is regarded as one of his major works. The film marked the start of a long relationship with screenwriter and film director Kaneto Shindō. In 1950, the two of them left Shōchiku and started the independent production company Kindai Eiga Kyōkai. For his 1951 ''Clothes of Deception'', produced by

Daiei Film Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, produci ...

, Yoshimura received the Mainichi Film Award for Best Director.. Since the mid-1950s, Yoshimura's films were produced mostly by Daiei.

Donald Richie Donald Richie (April 17, 1924 – February 19, 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also ...

and Joseph L. Anderson pointed out the lack of a cohesive visual style in Yoshimura's films, arguing that due to the wide range of material which Yoshimura chose, his style had to adopt to each individual film. According to Richie and Anderson, the one distinguishable cinematic element of his later films was Yoshimura's quick

editing Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...

. The director's "most typical films" (Alexander Jacoby) were contemporary dramas focussing on sympathetically drawn female characters, which earned him the comparison with Kenji Mizoguchi. Notable examples of Yoshimura's later work include '' Night River'' (1956), '' An Osaka Story'' (1957, a project he had taken over from Mizoguchi), ''Night Butterflies'' (1957) and ''Bamboo Doll of Echizen'' (1963). He is credited with furthering the careers of actresses such as Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao and his regular collaborator Machiko Kyō, from whom he elicited outstanding performances. In 1976, he received a

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

(Purple Ribbon) for artistic accomplishments.

Selected filmography

Director

* ''Warm Current'' (暖流, Danryū) (1939) * '' The Story of Tank Commander Nishizumi'' (1940) * ''The Spy Isn't Dead Yet'' (1942) * '' The Ball at the Anjo House'' (1947) * ''Temptation'' (1948) * ''Clothes of Deception'' (偽れる盛装, Itsuwareru seiso) (1951) * ''

The Tale of Genji is a classic work of Japanese literature written by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu around the peak of the Heian period, in the early 11th century. It is one of history's first novels, the first by a woman to have wo ...

'' (1951) * ''Thousand Cranes'' (1953) * ''Before the Dawn'' (1953) * ''Ginza no onna'' (1955) * '' Night River'' (1956) * '' An Osaka Story'' (1957) * ''Night Butterflies'' (1957) * ''A Woman's Uphill Slope'' (女の坂, Onna no saka) (1960) * '' A Woman's Testament'' (1960, episode "The Woman Who Forgot to Love") * ''Bamboo Doll of Echizen'' (1963)

Producer only

* ''

Epitome An epitome (; , from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "to the degree of." A ...

'' (1953) * '' Life of a Woman'' (1953)

Legacy

A retrospective on Yoshimura and Kaneto Shindō was held in London in 2012, organised by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

and the Japan Foundation.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshimura, Kozaburo 1911 births 2000 deaths Japanese film directors People from Ōtsu, Shiga