Nagamasa Kawakita

was a Japanese entrepreneur, film producer and importer. Together with his wife Kashiko Kawakita and daughter Kazuko Kawakita, he was instrumental in the development of the Japanese film industry, sponsoring actors and actresses, and in promoting Japanese cinema to overseas audiences.

Biography

Early life Kawakita was born in Tokyo. His father, Kawakita Daijiro, a highly decorated officer in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War, and subsequently an instructor at the Baoding Military Academy in Beijing, was killed under mysterious circumstances, possibly for treason by Japanese agents. Following graduation from high school in Japan, Kawakita travelled to China in 1922 to study at Beijing University

In 1938, Kawakita, who was fluent in Chinese as well as in German, turned his attention to China, working on a Sino-Japanese joint venture, The Road to Peace in the Orient, directed by Shigeyoshi Suzuki, investing much of his own capital in a project which he hoped would project Sino-Japanese harmony. However, the film was a commercial failure as the Chinese public say Kawakita as a mouthpiece of the Japanese military to assassinate him.

Post-war career After the surrender of Japan, Kawakita returned to Japan, where he was arrested by the American occupation forces and charged as a Class-B war criminal; however, he was soon released after the authorities received many statements in his defense from Chinese and Jews he had protected while in Shanghai.

In 1960, Kawakita established the Japan Film Library Council to promote Japanese cinema overseas and to make materials available to foreign researchers. He also was a founder of the Japan Art Theatre Guild, to promote international art film to Japan. His daughter, Kazuko Kawakita became an assistant to Akira Kurosawa on the 1960 film The Bad Sleep Well. She later married actor Juzo Itami.

Following his death, the Kawakita Award was created in 1983 to honor individuals or organizations who have contributed to the promotion of Japanese cinema overseas. Its first recipient was Donald Richie. His former home in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan has been turned into a memorial museum.