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 ...

and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

. Starting out as a screenwriter at

Shochiku is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and establis ...

in 1924, he also participated in the production of

Teinosuke Kinugasa was a Japanese filmmaker and actor. His best-known films include the Silent film, silent Experimental film, avant-garde films ''A Page of Madness'' and ''Crossroads (1928 film), Crossroads'' and the Academy Awards, Academy Award-winning historic ...

's ''

A Page of Madness is a 1926 Japanese Silent film, silent Experimental film, experimental Horror film, horror film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Lost film, Lost for 45 years until it was rediscovered by Kinugasa in his storehouse in 1971, the film is the produc ...

''. When Chōjirō Hayashi (later known as

Kazuo Hasegawa , formerly known by his stage names and , was a Japanese film and stage actor. He appeared in over 300 films from 1927 to 1963. Career Born to a sake brewing family in Kyoto, he first appeared on stage at age five in a theater run by his famil ...

) became a

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "historical drama, period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, crafts ...

star at Shochiku, Inuzuka directed many of his films. After World War II, Inuzuka returned to specializing in screenplays and was known for his scripts for the

Zatoichi is a fictional character created by Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa. He is an itinerant blind masseur and swordsman of Japan's late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). He first appeared in the 1948 essay ''Zatoichi Monogatari'', part of Shimozawa's '' ...

series. He published his autobiography in 2002, and died in 2007 at the age of 106. When he died, he was called the last surviving director to have directed a silent film in the 1920s. Inuzuka wrote scripts for over 150 films and directed over 50.

Selected filmography

As director

*''Chigo no kenpō'' (稚児の剣法) (1927) *'' The Spell of the Sand Painting'' (砂絵呪縛 Sunae Shibari) (1927)

As screenwriter

*''

'' (狂った一頁 Kurutta Ichipeiji) (1926). *'' Tsukigata Hanpeita: Hana no maki; Arashi no maki'' (月形半平太花の巻嵐の巻) (1956) *'' The Tale of Zatoichi'' (座頭市物語 Zatōichi monogatari) (1962) *''

New Tale of Zatoichi ''The New Tale of Zatoichi'' ( ''Shin Zatoichi monogatari'') is a 1963 Japanese film and the third entry from the popular Zatoichi series completing the trilogy. The film is the first Zatoichi film to be in colour. Plot Ichi travels to his old v ...

'' (新座頭市物語 Shin Zatōichi monogatari) (1963) *'' Zatoichi on the Road'' (座頭市喧嘩旅 Zatōichi kenka-tabi) (1963)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inuzuka, Minoru 1901 births 2007 deaths Film people from Tokyo Japanese film directors Japanese men centenarians Silent film directors 20th-century Japanese screenwriters