Masaki Kobayashi

was a Japanese filmmaker. He is best remembered for directing the epic war trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai films Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion (1967), and the horror anthology epic Kwaidan (1964). Senses of Cinema described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s." Although overshadowed by other Japanese filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu in his lifetime, his work has gained wider traction in the 21st century with several of his films being ranked as some of the greatest films ever made.

Biography Early life (1916–1946) Childhood and schooling (1916–1942) Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916, in Otaru, a port city on the island of Hokkaido. Kobayashi's family was a part of the upper-middle class, as his father, Yuichi, worked for Mitsui & Co., and his mother, Hisako, was part of a merchant family. He had two older brothers and a younger sister. The Kobayashi family descends from a samurai from Shimonoseki. At the university, Kobayashi was taught by Aizu Yaichi, a poet and historian who became a mentor of Kobayashi and influenced Kobayashi's perspectives on life and art.

After the war ended, Kobayashi spent nearly a year in a prisoner of war labor camp in Kadena, Okinawa. At the camp, Kobayashi ran a theater company with other inmates, and produced several shows. Upon returning home, he learned that his father had died in 1945 and that his older brother, Yasuhiko, died in battle in China in 1944. This film was part of an initiative by Shochiku to release short films, called "sister films", that were intended as introductions to new directors. Kobayashi refused to cut any content, so the film was not released until 1956. In 1957, Black River was released, about the crime and prostitution that arose around US bases in Japan during and after the American occupation.

In 1964, Kobayashi made Kwaidan (1964), his first color film, a collection of four ghost stories drawn from books by Lafcadio Hearn. Kwaidan won the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Later films (1967–1996) In 1968, Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Kon Ichikawa and Kobayashi founded the directors group, Shiki no kai-The Four Horsemen Club, in an attempt to create movies for younger generations.

In 1969, he was a member of the jury at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival.

He was also a candidate for directing the Japanese sequences for Tora! Tora! Tora! after Akira Kurosawa left the film. But instead Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda were chosen. In 1985, he directed his last film, The Empty Table, which was entered in the main competition at the 42nd Venice International Film Festival.

In 1990, Kobayashi was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government and the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.

One of his grand projects was a film on Yasushi Inoue's novel about Buddhist China, Tun Huang, which never came to fruition.

Pasinetti Award

Best Director 1962 Best Film

1963

1965 Kwaidan

Best Film of the Year

Best Director FIPRESCI Prize The Fossil 1983 Best Film Blue Ribbon Awards Tokyo Trials

Order of Arts and Letters French government France Order of the Rising Sun Japanese government

1996 Special Award Mainichi Film Awards