Masaki Kobayashi (小林 正樹, Kobayashi Masaki, February 14, 1916 – October 4, 1996) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967), and the horror anthology Kwaidan (1964).[1]Senses of Cinema described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s."[2]
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.[1][3] 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.[4][5] He had two older brothers and a younger sister.[5] He was also a second cousin of the actress and director Kinuyo Tanaka.[6] The Kobayashi family descends from a samurai from Shimonoseki.[5] Kobayashi lived in Tokyo while in elementary school, but otherwise lived in Otaru until he was 17 years-old.[5] Kobayashi's household was warm and tolerant, and his parents encouraged the exploration of the arts.[5] He saw a movie for the first time when he was 7 years-old, and he frequently watched movies and visited art exhibitions, concerts, and theatre performances with his mother.[5] Kobayashi's older brother, Yasuhiko, who attended film study groups while in university, also helped further Kobayashi's understanding of film.[5]
In 1938, Kobayashi enrolled in Waseda University in Tokyo.[3][7] 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.[7] Aizu specialized in Buddhist art, particularly that of the Nara period, and frequently brought his class to Buddhist temples.[7] Outside of class, Kobayashi accompanied Aizu on trips to Nara and often visited Aizu's house.[7] Due in part to Aizu's influence, Kobayashi decided to study East Asian art and philosophy.[3][7] Kobayashi wrote his thesis on Murō-ji, a Buddhist temple located in Nara.[7] He spent a month living at Murō-ji while researching its history for his thesis.[7] Kobayashi would later work on a documentary about Aizu released in 1996.[7]
While attending Waseda University, Kobayashi would visit Shochiku Studio to watch Kinuyo Tanaka, his second cousin, while she worked.[5] It was during his time at Waseda University that Kobayashi began to want to become a film director.[5]
After graduating from Waseda University in 1941, Kobayashi worked at Shochiku as a director in training for eight months.[1][7] While at Shochiku, Kobayashi assisted Hiroshi Shimizu on Dawn Chorus and Hideo Ōba on Kaze kaoru niwa.[7] During this time, Kobayashi began writing a book set in Nara, about an Oriental art scholar who enlisted in the army.[7]
Wartime (1942-1946)
In January 1942, Kobayashi was drafted into the Azabu Third Regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army.[1][7] After three months of training as a heavy machine gunner, Kobayashi was sent near Harbin in Manchuria.[1][7] In September 1943, Kobayashi's squad was sent to patrol along the Ussuri river.[7] In June 1944, his regiment returned to Japan, from which they were to be transferred to the Philippines.[7] However, Allied submarines prevented the Azabu Third Regiment from reaching the Philippines, so they headed for Okinawa Island instead.[7] While traveling to Okinawa, Kobayashi's group diverted to Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands, where they remained until the end of the war.[7] During that time, his group worked towards building an airfield.[7] Kobayashi's time on the island was difficult, with his group frequently resorting to eating grasshoppers and dogs to survive.[7] He kept a diary during his time on Miyako-jima, which documented his experience in the war and included an I-novel about the loss of his youth.[7] In his diary, Kobayashi shows support for the Japanese war effort, but laments the death and destruction that the war caused.[7] Kobayashi never participated in frontline fighting during his time in the army.[7] Kobayashi regarded himself as a pacifist and a socialist, and resisted by refusing promotion to a rank higher than private.[8]
After the war ended, Kobayashi spent nearly a year in a prisoner of war labor camp in Kadena, Okinawa.[7][9] At the camp, Kobayashi ran a theater company with other inmates, and produced several shows.[7] Kobayashi was released from the labor camp in November 1946.[1][10] 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.[10]
Film career (1946–1996)
Assisting Kinoshita (1946–1953)
After returning to Japan in 1946, Kobayashi rejoined Shochiku as assistant.[1] He was initially assigned to assist Keisuke Sasaki, but then was assigned to Keisuke Kinoshita.[1][10] During his time helping Kinoshita, Kobayashi grew to admire the compassion, intelligence and skill in directing of Kinoshita.[10] The two bonded over shared experiences in the war and in the deaths of their mothers.[10] Kobayashi's first job under Kinoshita was as a second assistant director on Phoenix in 1947.[10] In 1948, Kobayashi was promoted to the position of chief assistant director on Apostasy.[10] He remained as a chief assistant director for the rest of his time spent as an assistant to Kinoshita.[10] In 1949, Kobayashi co-scripted Broken Drum with Kinoshita.[10] The final Kinoshita film that Kobayashi assisted with was A Japanese Tragedy, released in 1953.[10] In 1953, Kinoshita began looking for material that could be adapted for Kobayashi's debut film.[10] Kinoshita had Shochiku purchase the rights to the Jinkō Teien novel, with the intent of the novel being used for Kobayashi's debut film.[10] Kinoshita would end up adapting the novel himself in the 1954 film The Garden of Women.[10]
Early films (1953-1959)
Kobayashi's directorial debut was in 1952 with My Son's Youth.[11] This film was part of an initative by Shochiku to release short films, called "sister films", that were intended as introductions to new directors.[11] On April 1, 1952, Kobayashi married Chiyoko Fumiya, an actress at Shochiku.[11] In 1953, Sincerity was released, which was Kobayashi's first feature length film.[11] The film was written by Kobayashi's mentor, Keisuke Kinoshita.[11] Both My Son's Youth and Sincerity drew inspiration from Kobayashi's family and childhood, with some of the characters being modeled after members of his family.[11]
In 1953, Kobayashi finished filming The Thick-Walled Room, about Class B and Class C war criminals being held in Sugamo Prison.[11] The film was based on the diaries of real war criminals and was a substantial departure from the type of films Shochiku typically at that time.[11] Shochiku initially refused to release The Thick-Walled Room without alteration, due to the Japan government's fear that the film's criticism of the Allied occupation of Japan would upset the United States.[11][12] Kobayashi refused to cut any content, so the film was not released until 1956.[12]The Thick-Walled Room hurt Kobayashi's reputation within Shochiku, so he attempted to reestablish himself by making his next four films more similar to the typical style of Shochiku.[11]
In 1954, Three Loves was released.[11] This film features scenes shot inside the same church that Kobayashi and Chiyoko Fumiya were married in.[11] Later in 1954, Somewhere Under the Broad Sky was released.[11] This film included the first appearance of Keiji Sada in a Kobayashi-directed film, who was close friends with Kobayashi and would go on to appear in 6 of Kobayashi's films.[11] In 1956, Fountainhead was released, which was the last of Kobayashi's films that strongly resembled the typical Shochiku style.[11]
In 1956, The Thick-Walled Room was released to the public.[12] Later that year, I Will Buy You was released, about corruption in baseballscouting.[13] In 1957, Black River was released, about the crime and prostitution that arised around US bases in Japan during and after the American occupation.[13] This was the first of Kobayashi's films to star Tatsuya Nakadai in a major role.[13] Nakadai would become a mainstay of Kobayashi's film, starring in 9 of Kobayashi's next 13 films.[13]
Peak of recognition (1959-1967)
Kobayashi (bottom, second from left) with the cast of No Greater Love in 1959
From 1959 to 1961, Kobayashi directed The Human Condition (1959–1961), a trilogy on the effects of World War II on a Japanese pacifist and socialist. The total length of the films is almost ten hours, which makes it one of the longest fiction films ever made for theatrical release.[1]
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.
