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54-418: The drama was adapted into a film in 1978. Five actors have portrayed the lead character in the series. Eijirō Tōno created the part and appeared in 13 seasons. His successor was Kō Nishimura . Asao Sano followed and then Kōji Ishizaka took the role in two seasons, quitting for cancer treatments. Kōtarō Satomi played Mitsuemon from 2002 until the end of the series in 2011. The character normally sports

108-405: A ninja who helped Mitsuemon. Evil characters who tried to kill Mitsuemon were played by such actors as Shigeru Tsuyuguchi (1st season) and Mikio Narita (3rd season). In each of the show's 43 seasons, various other regular characters joined the retinue. For many years, they included the food-loving commoner Hachibei, the reformed thieves Kazaguruma no Yashichi (a former ninja whose main weapon

162-545: A sake brewery , his father was a Hino merchant (Ōmi merchant), who had moved to Kantō alone from a mountain village in Ōmi Province and worked his way to become a sake brewer from the ground up. Tōno attended Tomioka Middle School. After enrolling as a student in the Commerce Department of Meiji University he joined the left-wing Society for the Study of Social Science (社会科学研究会 : Shakai-kagaku kenkyukai ). This

216-441: A 50mm lens, which is usually considered to be the lens closest to human vision. Ozu did not use typical transitions between scenes. In between scenes he would show shots of certain static objects as transitions, or use direct cuts, rather than fades or dissolves. Most often the static objects would be buildings, where the next indoor scene would take place. It was during these transitions that he would use music, which might begin at

270-471: A comfort station near Yingcheng . He mentions that two tickets, ointment and prophylatics are provided, and that three Korean and twelve Chinese women were being held at the comfort station for their use. Comfort station rates and schedules are also given by Ozu. In 1939, he wrote the first draft of the script for The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice , but shelved it due to extensive changes insisted on by military censors. The first film Ozu made on his return

324-552: A depiction of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . His final film was Juzo Itami 's A-ge-man ( Tales of a Golden Geisha ) in 1990. Tōno also starred as the title character in the long-running television jidaigeki series Mito Kōmon from 1969 to 1983. In the early years of his career he acted under the name of Katsuji Honjo (本庄克二). Eijirō Tōno was born on 17 September 1907 in Tomioka City, Gunma Prefecture , Japan. Born to

378-518: A dialogue sound-track was The Only Son in 1936, five years after Japan's first talking film, Heinosuke Gosho 's The Neighbor's Wife and Mine . On 9 September 1937, at a time when Shochiku was unhappy about Ozu's lack of box-office success, despite the praise he received from critics, the thirty-four-year-old Ozu was conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army . He spent two years in China in

432-622: A documentary Derii e, Derii e ("To Delhi, to Delhi") about Chandra Bose . During his time in Singapore, having little inclination to work, he spent an entire year reading, playing tennis and watching American films provided by the Army information corps. He was particularly impressed with Orson Welles's Citizen Kane . He occupied a fifth-floor room facing the sea in the Cathay Building where he entertained guests, drew pictures, and collected rugs. At

486-493: A few premises." Ozu invented the "tatami shot", in which the camera is placed at a low height, supposedly at the eye level of a person kneeling on a tatami mat. Actually, Ozu's camera is often even lower than that, only one or two feet off the ground, which necessitated the use of special tripods and raised sets. He used this low height even when there were no sitting scenes, such as when his characters walked in hallways. When Ozu made his move to colour, he chose to shoot under

540-454: A good-looking boy in a lower class, and had to commute to school by train. In March 1921, Ozu graduated from the high school. He attempted the exam for entrance into what is now Kobe University 's economics department, but failed. In 1922, he took the exam for a teacher training college, but failed it too. On 31 March 1922, he began working as a substitute teacher at a school in Mie prefecture . He

594-498: A man as he is hacked to death is very much like its depiction in period films. Ozu's writings also offers a glimpse into the Japanese military's use of comfort women . In a letter sent to friends in Japan on 11 April 1938, from Dingyuan County in China's Anhui Province , Ozu writes about the comfort station protocol in lightly coded terms. In a 13 January 1939 diary entry, Ozu writes more openly about his group's upcoming turn for use of

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648-435: A nearby house called Mugeisō. Ozu's films from the late 1940s onward were favourably received, and the entries in the so-called "Noriko trilogy" (starring Setsuko Hara ) of Late Spring (1949), Early Summer (1951) and Tokyo Story (1953) are among his most acclaimed works, with Tokyo Story widely considered his masterpiece. Late Spring , the first of these films, was the beginning of Ozu's commercial success and

702-536: A pointed white beard. He wears the lavish garb of a wealthy retiree and carries a walking stick (a staff), which also serves as his defensive weapon in combat. Singer-actor Ryōtarō Sugi was the series' first Suke-san, followed by Kōtarō Satomi, who many years later took over the lead role. Teruhiko Aoi was next, then Yūji Kishimoto , and Ryūji Harada . Opposite them, Tadashi Yokouchi , Shin'ya Ōwada , Goro Ibuki , Jundai Yamada , and Masashi Gōda have played Kaku-san. Ichiro Nakatani played Kazaguruma no Yashichi,

756-408: A trip to a hot spring. In his early works, Ozu used the pseudonym "James Maki" for his screenwriting credit. His film Young Miss , with an all-star cast, was the first time he used the pen name James Maki, and was also his first film to appear in film magazine Kinema Jumpo 's "Best Ten" at third position. In 1932, his I Was Born, But... , a comedy about childhood with serious overtones,

810-511: Is a shuriken with pinwheel, with a dagger as his sidearm) and his wife Kasumi no Oshin, the ninja Tsuge no Tobizaru portrayed by Masaki Nomura, and kunoichi Kagerō Ogin. Portrayed by Kaoru Yumi , Ogin was the lead character in a light-hearted spinoff, Mito Kōmon Gaiden Kagerō Ninpō-chō . The same actress took on a new role, Hayate no Oen. Many former regular actors appeared in the show's gala 1000th special episode, which aired on December 15, 2003. A 1978 film distributed by Toei Company shared

864-516: Is said to have traveled the long journey from the school in the mountains to watch films on the weekend. In December 1922, his family, with the exception of Ozu and his sister, moved back to Tokyo to live with his father. In March 1923, when his sister graduated, he also returned to live in Tokyo. With his uncle acting as intermediary, Ozu was hired by the Shochiku Film Company , as an assistant in

918-606: The Battle of Nanchang and the Battle of Xiushui River . In June, he was ordered back to Japan, arriving in Kobe in July, and his conscription ended on 16 July 1939. Some of Ozu's published diaries cover his wartime experiences between 20 December 1938 and 5 June 1939. Another diary from his wartime years ( 陣中日記 ) he expressly forbade from publication. In the published diaries, reference to his group's participation in chemical warfare (in violation of

972-518: The Geneva Protocol , though Japan had withdrawn from the League of Nations in 1933) can be found, for example, in various entries from March 1939. In other entries, he describes Chinese soldiers in disparaging terms, likening them in one passage to insects. Although operating as a military squad leader, Ozu retains his directorial perspective, once commenting that the initial shock and subsequent agony of

1026-602: The Second Sino-Japanese War . He arrived in Shanghai on 27 September 1937 as part of an infantry regiment which handled chemical weapons. He started as a corporal, but was promoted to sergeant on 1 June 1938. From January until September 1938, he was stationed in Nanjing , where he met Sadao Yamanaka , who was stationed nearby. In September, Yamanaka died of illness. In 1939, Ozu was dispatched to Hankou , where he fought in

1080-627: The 1960s; however, Tokyo Story gained recognition after winning the Sutherland Trophy at the 1958 London Film Festival. Ozu's last film was An Autumn Afternoon , which was released in 1962. He served as president of the Directors Guild of Japan from 1955 until his death in 1963. In 1959 he became the first recipient from the field of cinema to win the Japan Art Academy Prize. Ozu was known for his drinking. He and Noda measured

1134-548: The 2012 Sight & Sound poll, Ozu's Tokyo Story was voted the third-greatest film of all time by critics world-wide. In the same poll, Tokyo Story was voted the greatest film of all time by 358 directors and film-makers world-wide. Ozu was born in the Fukagawa district of Tokyo , the second son of merchant Toranosuke Ozu and his wife Asae. His family was a branch of the Ozu Yoemon merchant family from Ise , and Toranosuke

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1188-519: The Anglophonic audience. Five , also known as Five Dedicated to Ozu , is an Iranian documentary film directed by Abbas Kiarostami . The film consists of five long takes set by the ocean. Five sequences: 1) A piece of driftwood on the seashore, carried about by the waves 2) People walking on the seashore. The oldest ones stop by, look at the sea, then go away 3) Blurry shapes on a winter beach. A herd of dogs. A love story 4) A group of loud ducks cross

1242-453: The German colour process Agfacolor , as he felt that it captured reds much better than any other colour process. Ozu eschewed the traditional rules of movie storytelling, most notably eyelines . In his review of Floating Weeds , film critic Roger Ebert recounts: [Ozu] once had a young assistant who suggested that perhaps he should shoot conversations so that it seemed to the audience that

1296-683: The Gravedigger in Hamlet established his reputation as an actor. He also came to play an important part in the management of the troupe. In 1936, he made his film debut in Older Brother, Younger Sister (兄いもうと: Ani imōto ). In 1938 he appeared in Teinosuke Kinugasa 's Kuroda seichū roku (黒田誠忠録)and subsequently had roles in pictures for the Shōchiku , Nikkatsu and Tōhō studios. Up to this point, he

1350-614: The Ofuna studios on 18 February 1946. His first film released after the war was Record of a Tenement Gentleman in 1947. Around this time, the Chigasakikan Ryokan became Ozu's favoured location for scriptwriting. Tokyo Story was the last script that Ozu wrote at Chigasakikan. In later years, Ozu and Noda used a small house in the mountains at Tateshina in Nagano Prefecture called Unkosō to write scripts, with Ozu staying in

1404-539: The Seven Dwarfs (1937 film) . The role for which he is perhaps best remembered in Japan, however, is that of the title character in the hugely popular TV jidaigeki Mito Kōmon , in which the historical Tokugawa Mitsukuni , retired daimyō of the Mito Domain , roams the country in the guise of a retired merchant, Mitsuemon, righting wrongs and correcting injustice with the aid of two samurai retainers. Tōno played

1458-812: The Tokyo Left-wing Theatre (東京左翼劇場: Tokyo sayoku gekijo ) production of The Mount Osore Tunnel (恐山トンネル: Osoreyama tonneru )by Jūrō Miyoshi. Having completed the proletarian drama course, he joined the New Tsukiji Theatre Group and took the stage name Katsuji Honjō (本庄克二). Through the 1930s, Tōno appeared in almost all of the New Tsukiji Theatre Group's productions, receiving favourable reviews. In particular, his performances as Heizō in Earth (土: Tsuchi ), Yugorō in The Composition-writing Classroom (綴方教室: Tsuzurikata kyōshitsu ) and

1512-412: The age of 12, he entered what is now Ujiyamada High School. He was a boarder at the school and did judo. He frequently skipped classes to watch films such as Quo Vadis or The Last Days of Pompeii . In 1917, he saw the film Civilization and decided that he wanted to be a film director. In 1920, at the age of 17, he was thrown out of the dormitory after being accused of writing a love letter to

1566-631: The cast, production crew, and title. Since its inception, the program has been a mainstay of the Panasonic Drama Theater (formerly known as the National Theater), sponsored by Panasonic . The TBS network aired the show throughout Japan, and showed reruns on both its analogue stations and its CS satellite channel. For nearly three decades, Mito Kōmon shared the time slot with Ōoka Echizen and Edo wo Kiru , and various actors and actresses appeared in both series. An unusual feature of

1620-468: The characters were looking at one another. Ozu agreed to a test. They shot a scene both ways, and compared them. "You see?" Ozu said. "No difference!" Ozu was also an innovator in Japanese narrative structure through his use of ellipses , or the decision not to depict major events in the story. In An Autumn Afternoon (1962), for example, a wedding is merely mentioned in one scene, and the next sequence references this wedding (which has already occurred);

1674-403: The cinematography department, on 1 August 1923, against the wishes of his father. His family home was destroyed in the earthquake of 1923 , but no members of his family were injured. On 12 December 1924, Ozu started a year of military service. He finished his military service on 30 November 1925, leaving as a corporal. In 1926, he became a third assistant director at Shochiku. In 1927, he

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1728-418: The development of his cinematography and storytelling style. These three films were followed by his first colour film, Equinox Flower , in 1958, Floating Weeds in 1959 and Late Autumn in 1960. In addition to Noda, other regular collaborators included cinematographer Yuharu Atsuta, along with the actors Chishū Ryū , Setsuko Hara and Haruko Sugimura . His work was only rarely shown overseas before

1782-497: The early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in the 1930s. The most prominent themes of Ozu's work are family and marriage, and especially the relationships between generations. His most widely beloved films include Late Spring (1949), Tokyo Story (1953) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962). Widely regarded as one of the world's greatest and most influential filmmakers, Ozu's work has continued to receive acclaim since his death. In

1836-466: The end of one scene, progress through the static transition, and fade into the new scene. He rarely used non- diegetic music in any scenes other than in the transitions. Ozu moved the camera less and less as his career progressed, and ceased using tracking shots altogether in his colour films. However, David Bordwell argues that Ozu is one of the few directors to "create a systematic alternative to Hollywood continuity cinema, but he does so by changing only

1890-787: The end of the Second World War, in August 1945, Ozu destroyed the script and all footage of the film. He was detained as a civilian, and worked in a rubber plantation. Of his film team of 32 people, there was only space for 28 on the first repatriation boat to Japan. Ozu won a lottery giving him a place, but gave it to someone else who was anxious to return. Ozu returned to Japan in February 1946, and moved back in with his mother, who had been staying with his sister in Noda in Chiba prefecture . He reported for work at

1944-434: The end of the war and 1990 he also played supporting roles in well over 200 films. Notable among them were seven films for Akira Kurosawa , including Seven Samurai and Yojimbo , four for Yasujirō Ozu , including Tokyo Story and An Autumn Afternoon , and nine for Keisuke Kinoshita, including Marriage (結婚: Kekkon ) and The Ballad of Narayama . He also voiced Doc in the 1958 Japanese dub of Snow White and

1998-443: The image, in one direction then the other 5) A pond, at night. Frogs improvising a concert. A storm, then the sunrise. In 2003, the centenary of Ozu's birth was commemorated at various film festivals around the world. Shochiku produced the film Café Lumière (珈琲時光), directed by Taiwanese film-maker Hou Hsiao-hsien as homage to Ozu, with direct reference to the late master's Tokyo Story (1953), to premiere on Ozu's birthday. Ozu

2052-613: The last year of the Pacific War , he toured Japan under the auspices of the Japan Peripatetic Drama League (日本移動演劇連盟), an officially-sponsored body whose remit was to raise morale, and therefore productivity, by bringing drama to factories, mines, farming communities and fishing villages. After the war ended in August 1945, Tōno returned to the Actors' Theatre as one of its central figures, both actor and administrator. Between

2106-517: The most humanistic director of all time. In 2013, director Yoji Yamada of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo film series remade Tokyo Story in a modern setting as Tokyo Family . In the Wim Wenders documentary film Tokyo-Ga , the director travels to Japan to explore the world of Ozu, interviewing both Chishū Ryū and Yuharu Atsuta. In 2023, OZU: Ozu Yasujirō ga Kaita Monogatari (OZU～小津安二郎が描いた物語～),

2160-437: The narrative content. The style of his films is most striking in his later films, a style he had not fully developed until his post-war sound films. He did not conform to Hollywood conventions. Rather than using the typical over-the-shoulder shots in his dialogue scenes by most directors, the camera gazes on the actors directly, which has the effect of placing the viewer in the middle of the scene. Throughout his career, Ozu used

2214-492: The progression of their scripts by how many bottles of sake they had drunk. Ozu never married. He lived with his mother until she died in 1961. A heavy smoker, Ozu died of throat cancer in 1963 on his sixtieth birthday. The grave he shares with his mother at Engaku-ji in Kamakura bears no name—just the character mu ("nothingness"). Ozu is probably as well known for the technical style and innovation of his films as for

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2268-454: The role in 381 episodes between 1969 and 1983. (The series continued through 2011, with four further actors playing Mitsuemon.) Tōno died of heart failure on 8 September 1994, nine days before his 87th birthday. Yasujir%C5%8D Ozu Yasujirō Ozu ( 小津 安二郎 , Ozu Yasujirō , 12 December 1903 – 12 December 1963) was a Japanese filmmaker. He began his career during the era of silent films , and his last films were made in colour in

2322-674: The series is that the credits list the maker of the inrō . The last episode aired on December 19, 2011. There was also an animated adaptation called Manga Mito Kōmon (まんが水戸黄門) that aired during 1981–1982, animated by Knack Productions . In the light novel Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku , the main protagonist quotes Mito Komon frequently. He also made a firm by the name Echigoya. Season1-2 Season3-8 Season 9–13 Season 14–17 Season 18–21 Season 22–28 Season 29–30 Season 31 Season 32–41 Season 42–43 Eijir%C5%8D T%C5%8Dno Eijirō Tōno ( 東野英治郎 , Tōno Eijirō , 17 September 1907 – 8 September 1994)

2376-493: The wedding itself is never shown. This is typical of Ozu's films, which eschew melodrama by eliding moments that would often be used in Hollywood in attempts to stir an emotional reaction from audiences. Ozu became recognized internationally when his films were shown abroad. Influential monographs by Donald Richie , Paul Schrader , and David Bordwell have ensured a wide appreciation of Ozu's style, aesthetics, and themes by

2430-549: Was a Japanese actor who, in a career lasting more than 50 years, appeared in over 400 television shows, nearly 250 films and numerous stage productions. He is best known in the West for his roles in films by Akira Kurosawa , such as Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961), and films by Yasujirō Ozu , such as Tokyo Story (1953) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962). He also appeared in Kill! by Kihachi Okamoto and Tora! Tora! Tora! ,

2484-480: Was credited under his stage name, 'Katsuji Honjō'. In August 1940 the New Tsukiji Theatre Group was forcibly disbanded. From this time on, he was credited as 'Tōno Eijirō'. In 1943 he appeared in Keisuke Kinoshita 's debut film Port of Flowers (花咲く港: Hana saku minato ). In 1944 Tōno, Eitarō Ozawa , Koreya Senda , Sugisaku Aoyama, Chieko Higashiyama and others formed the Actors' Theatre Haiyuza . During

2538-414: Was involved in a fracas where he punched another employee for jumping a queue at the studio cafeteria, and when called to the studio director's office, used it as an opportunity to present a film script he had written. In September 1927, he was promoted to director in the jidaigeki (period film) department, and directed his first film, Sword of Penitence , which has since been lost. Sword of Penitence

2592-529: Was politically dangerous, as the Peace Preservation Law of 1925 made members of any association whose object was the alteration of the kokutai (National Polity), or of the system of private property, liable to imprisonment for up to ten years. In 1931 he became a student on the proletarian drama course run by the Tsukiji Little Theatre (築地小劇場: Tsukiji shogekijo ). He made his stage debut in

2646-489: Was received by movie critics as the first notable work of social criticism in Japanese cinema, winning Ozu wide acclaim. In 1935, Ozu made a short documentary with a soundtrack: Kagami Jishi , in which Kikugoro VI performed a Kabuki dance of the same title. This was made by request of the Ministry of Education. Like the rest of Japan's cinema industry, Ozu was slow to switch to the production of talkies : his first film with

2700-722: Was the 5th generation manager of the family's fertilizer business in Nihonbashi . Asae came from the Nakajō merchant family. Ozu had five brothers and sisters. When he was three, he developed meningitis , and was in a coma for a couple of days. Asae devoted herself to nursing him, and Ozu made a recovery. He attended Meiji nursery school and primary school. In March 1913, at the age of nine, he and his siblings were sent by his father to live in his father's home town of Matsusaka in Mie Prefecture , where he remained until 1924. In March 1916, at

2754-532: Was the critically and commercially successful Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family , released in 1941. He followed this with There Was a Father ( Chichi Ariki , 1942), which explored the strong bonds of affection between a father and son despite years of separation. In 1943, Ozu was again drafted into the army for the purpose of making a propaganda film in Burma . However, he was sent to Singapore instead, to make

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2808-567: Was the first Ozu film to use a low camera position, which would become his trademark. After a series of the "no star" pictures, in September 1929, Ozu's first film with stars, I Graduated, But... , starring Minoru Takada  [ jp ] and Kinuyo Tanaka , was released. In January 1930, he was entrusted with Shochiku's top star, Sumiko Kurishima , in her new year film, An Introduction to Marriage  [ jp ] . His subsequent films of 1930 impressed Shiro Kido enough to invite Ozu on

2862-497: Was voted the tenth greatest director of all time in the 2002 British Film Institute 's Sight & Sound poll of critics' top 10 directors. Ozu's Tokyo Story has appeared several times in the Sight & Sound poll of best films selected by critics and directors. In 2012, it topped the poll of film directors' choices of "greatest film of all time". Ozu was one of film critic Roger Ebert 's favourite filmmakers, who described him as

2916-559: Was written by Ozu, with a screenplay by Kogo Noda , who would become his co-writer for the rest of his career. On September 25, he was called up for service in the military reserves until November, which meant that the film had to be partly finished by another director. In 1928, Shiro Kido, the head of the Shochiku studio, decided that the company would concentrate on making short comedy films without star actors. Ozu made many of these films. The film Body Beautiful , released on 1 December 1928,

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