(19 May 1926 – 27 January 2018) 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

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

. He directed films from the 1950s to the 1970s. He died on 27 January 2018 of multiple organ failure at the age of 91.

Career

Sawashima was born in Kotō,

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 ...

, Japan. He joined the Toei Studio in 1950 and worked as an assistant director under

Masahiro Makino was a Japanese film director. He directed more than 260 films, primarily in the chanbara and yakuza film, yakuza genres. His real name was , but he took the stage name Masahiro, the kanji for which he changed multiple times (including , , and ). ...

and

Kunio Watanabe Kunio (written: 邦夫, 邦男, 邦雄, 邦生, 國男, 國士, 国男, 国夫, 州男 or 久仁生) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese businessman *, Japanese businessman *, Japanese judge *, Jap ...

before debuting as a director in 1957 with '' Torawakamaru the Koga Ninja''. He is most known for his work in Toei's

ninkyo eiga is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of ''yakuza'', Japanese organized crime syndicates. In the silent film era, depictions of ''bakuto'' (precursors to modern yakuza) as sympathetic Robin Hood-l ...

series, but he also directed entertainment

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 ...

featuring

Hibari Misora was a Japanese singer, actress and cultural icon. She received a Medal of Honor for her contributions to music and for improving the welfare of the public, and was the first woman to receive the People's Honour Award, which was conferred posth ...

Chiemi Eri was a Japanese singer and actress. Eri was born as on January 11, 1937 in Tokyo, Japan. She was born to a musician father and a mother who was a singer, thus encouraging her musical career. She started her singing career at the age of 14 with ...

, and

Kinnosuke Nakamura (November 20, 1932 – March 10, 1997) was a Japanese kabuki actor. Born , son of kabuki actor Nakamura Tokizō III, he entered kabuki and became the first in the kabuki tradition to take the name Nakamura Kinnosuke. He took on his guild name ('' ...

. He directed his last film in 1977, and mostly directed stage productions after that. In his final years, he had been attempting to film a version of the Chushingura story, but did not succeed. He was given a Special Award at the 40th Japan Academy Prize ceremony in 2017 for his career in cinema.

Filmography

He directed 49 films and wrote nine screenplays: http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/person/p0263040.htm JMDB, accessed 22 May 2009. as director: * '' Torawakamaru the Koga Ninja'' (忍術御前試合 Ninjutsu gozen-jiai) (1957) * ''Drunken Sword'' (1962) * ''Jinsei gekijo: hisha kaku'' (1963) * ''Cry of the Mountain'' (1968) * '' Shinsengumi: Assassins of Honor'' (1969) * ''Boruneo taisho: Akamichi ni tokero'' (1969) * '' Akō Rōshi'' (1979) (TV series) (ep.1,2,12,13,33 and 34) screenplays:

References

External links

* *Tadashi Sawashima a
Rotten Tomatoes
1926 births 2018 deaths Japanese film directors Samurai film directors Japanese theatre directors People from Shiga Prefecture {{Japan-film-director-stub